'--1  ''^rWHW-'-rWrn 
■f 


1 

LIBE  A^R  Y 

Theo 

logical    Seminary, 

PRINCETON,    N.   J. 

Gixe 
Shelf 

C,-vis,on..  J3  SZ^\8. 

.   Sec.'ion _.:..:    ..     i 

Booh 

r.'o 

-4-:.-¥-.W» 


'mi€m 


4-  -f^'  ■  • 


THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  KINGDOM 
TO  THE  WORLD. 


MUEEAT  AND  GIBB,  EDINBTJBGH, 
PRINTERS  TO  HER  MAJESTl'S  STATIONEET  OFFICE. 


THE 


RELATIONS   OF  THE  KINGDOM 
TO    THE    WORLD. 


J.    OSWALD    DYKES,    D.D. 


OvK  IpuTu  "va  Upy,;  avrous  l»  rov  xoa-fiov,  aXX    'noe,  Tvpynrris  avrovg  ix 

Tou  -TTor/tfou. — John  xvii.  15. 


NEW     YORK: 

ROBERT    CARTER    &    BROTHERS. 

187  4. 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 

Deeply  conscious  of  the  imperfect  success  which  has  attended 
his  attempt  to  open  up  that  great  Sermon  which  is  the 
Lord^s  own  Manifesto  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
the  Author  ventures,  nevertheless,  to  offer  this  concluding 
pmiion  to  such  readers  as  may  have  found  any  profit  from 
the  two  preceding  parts,  on  '  The  Beatitudes,'  and  on 
*The  Laws  of  the  Kingdom.' 


INTRODUCTION, 


INTRODUCTION. 

THE  main  or  central  mass  of  our  Lord's  teaching       intro- 
duction, 
in  this  Sermon  has  been  already  considered        — 

by  ns.^     It  consists  in  a  republication  of  Mosaic  Matt.  v.  17- 

law  under  its  '  fulfilled '  form  ;  that  is,  with  its 

literal  precepts  translated  into  spiritual  principles 

of  virtue,  resumed  under  one  comprehensive  canon 

of  godlike  love,  and  animated  by  the  supreme 

religious  motive  of  regard  for  the  approval  of  our 

heavenly  Father.     In  laying  down  for  His  new 

kingdom  such  a  '  fulfilled '    edition  of  Hebrew 

morals,  Jesus  could  not  escape  a  running  polemic 

against  those  accepted  teachers  of  His  time  who 

had  done  their  best,  not  to  fulfil,  but  to  destroy, 

the  ancient  law  of  which  they  boasted  to  be  the 

guardians,   and  were   the   recognised   expositors. 

But  the  spiritual  kingdom,  whose  foundations  our 

Lord  was  here  laying,  though  it  grew  out  of  the 

bosom  of  the  Mosaic  system,  and,  above  all,  drew 

from  that  system  what  had  been  its  main  glory — 

its  ethical  law — was  yet  destined  to  attain  an  in- 

1  In  a  volume  entitled,  The  Laws  of  the  Kingdom.    Nisbet  & 
Co.     2d  ed.     1873. 


4  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

INTRO-       dependent  position,  and  to  hold  relations  with  a 

'     wider  world  than  the  little  realm  of  Israel     The 

Matt.  vi.  19-  last  great  section  of  the  Sermon,  therefore,  on 
which  we  are  now  entering,  contains  a  series  of 
rules  for  christian  life,  which  (though  admitted 
to  be  less  vigorously  knit  into  a  unity  than  what 
precedes)  may  be  described  as  all  bearing  on  the 
relations  of  the  kingdom  of  God  to  the  existing  con- 
dition, not  of  Judaism  only,  but  of  every  society 
on  earth, — to  the  '  world,'  as  it  is  to  be  found  at 
all  times  and  in  every  land.  From  this  point, 
therefore,  the  discourse  shows  less  of  its  local  and 
Hebrew  colouring.  It  wears  less  the  aspect  of  a 
rejoinder  to  the  Eabbinical  schools.  It  deals, 
not  with  Mosaic  law  or  ritual,  but  with  the  great 
facts  of  catholic  human  life.  How  the  christian 
disciple  stands  to  this  world  as  an  object  of  desire 
or  of  possession ;  what  attitude  he  is  to  assume 
towards  its  sin,  whether  within  or  without  the 
christian  brotherhood  ;  by  what  means  men  may 
pass  from  the  e\dl  world  outside  into  the  little 
kingdom  of  the  saved  ;  and  how  evil,  which  has 
stolen  under  disguise  into  the  very  kingdom  of 
God,  is  to  be  detected : — such  are  the  points  with 
which  this  closing  section  is  occupied.  They  all 
cluster  round  one  central  theme — the  relations  of 
the  Kingdom  to  the  world. 


Introduction.  5 

Wherever  men  of  very  strong  religious  nature  intro- 
have  set  themselves  vigorously  to  the  task  of  — 
gathering  around  them  a  select  community  of  dis- 
ciples, who  shall  lead  a  purer  and  more  pious  life 
than  is  led  by  the  bulk  of  mankind,  there  has 
been  developed  a  strong  tendency  towards  a  literal 
and  social  segregation  from  common  life.  To  sepa- 
rate from  the  sins  of  life  without  actually  aban- 
doning to  some  extent  its  ties  and  duties,  has 
never  appeared  possible,  or  at  least  sufficient ; 
and  the  crown  of  merit  has  therefore  been  in 
nearly  every  great  religion  reserved  for  those  few 
ardent  devotees  whose  zeal  enables  them  to  break 
with  society.  Vows  of  poverty  or  celibacy,  re- 
treats, religious  communities,  and  brotherhoods  of 
every  description,  are  only  so  many  ways  of  accom- 
plishing that  outward  severance  from  the  world, 
without  which  a  spiritual  deliverance  from  its 
temptations  and  impurities  is  despaired  of ;  and 
these  have  been  the  resource  of  the  mistaken  pious 
under  every  faith.  In  Buddhist  monasteries,  in 
the  Fakirs  of  Brahminism  and  the  Hadjis  of  the 
Moslem  faith,  not  less  than  in  Hebrew  Essenes, 
Catholic  convents,  and  Moravian  settlements,  we 
trace  the  widespread  fruits  of  one  profound  con- 
viction of  deep  thinkers  on  religion,  that  to  attain 
to  the  kingdom  of  God  a  man  must  needs  go  out 


The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 


INTRO- 
DUCTION. 


Of.  1  Cor.  V. 

9,  10,  vii.  20, 
31. 


John  xvii. 
15-18. 


of  the  world.  It  is  one  of  the  most  striking 
peculiarities  of  the  religion  which  rests  on  Holy 
Scripture,  that,  almost  alone  among  the  great  faiths 
of  history,  it  repudiates  this  maxim.  Neither  in 
its  Hebrew  nor  in  its  Christian  sacred  books,  do 
we  find  social  separation  proposed  as  an  aid  to 
piety.  Moses  framed  his  institutes  for  a  common- 
wealth in  which  patriotism  and  religion  became 
almost  identified.  Christ  designed  His  Church 
to  be  a  society  standing  aloof  only  in  a  spiritual 
sense  from  the  world,  while  penetrating  and  in- 
habiting it.  As  little  countenance  as  Essenism 
found  in  the  Pentateuch,  so  little  does  coenobitic 
or  celibate  life,  whether  under  Catholic  or  Pro- 
testant names,  find  in  the  Gospels.  The  king- 
dom of  heaven,  of  which  this  Sermon  is  the  earliest 
manifesto,  was  not  to  be  of  this  world  in  its  moral 
or  spiritual  temper ;  but  it  certainly  was  to  be, 
in  the  fullest  possible  sense,  in  this  world ;  '  ful- 
filling '  (here  again),  and  not  '  destroying,'  those 
domestic,  civil,  and  social  moulds  into  which 
the  original  design  of  God  meant  human  life 
to  run. 

To  such  a  society,  its  right  relations  to  ordinary 
secular  life  become,  it  is  obvious,  of  exceptional 
importance.  Those  relations  must  be  mainly  of 
two  sorts.     In  the  first  instance,  the  world  is  a 


Introduction.  7' 

place  to  live  in ;  and  the  christian  disciple,  who       intro- 
is  not  to  abandon  the  possession  of  property,  but        — 
continues  bound  to  provide  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence for  himself  and  his  family,  finds  himself  at 
once  face  to  face  with  a  crowd  of  questions  turning 
on  the  right  or  wrong  acquisition,  preservation, 
and  employment  of  wealth.    This  is  the  large  sub-  Matt.  vi.  19-34. 
ject  handled  by  our  Lord  in  the  first  paragraph 
of  this  section.     In  the  next  place,  the  world  is 
a  seat  and  source  of  moral  evil.     The  heavenly  vii.  i-e. 
kingdom,  if  it  exist  in  the  presence  of  evil,  must 
exist  as  a  witness  against  it,  striving  to  shame  the 
evil,  and  win  men  from  it ;  and  to  do  this  wisely 
asks  special  prudence,     Notwithstanding  its  wit- 
ness,  the   world  will   always   number  the   vast 
majority  of  mankind ;  and  the  effort  of  the  few  vii.  7-14. 
to  attain  for  themselves  super- worldly  purity  or 
nobleness  must  be  proportionately  severe.     Be- 
sides, evil  men  and  their  evil  influences  cannot  be  vii.  15-23. 
wholly  kept  out  of  a  society  which  is  not  to  be 
locally  separate ;  and  the  danger  of  gradual  deteri- 
oration or  wholesale  swamping  of  the  little  king- 
dom of  good  by  such  incursions  from  the  great 
world  of  evil  outside,  is  a  danger  which  must  be 
faced.     On  all  these  questions  our  Lord  gives 
enduring  instructions  in  the  latter  portion  of  this 
section.      The  links  between  its  several  minor 


8  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

INTRO-       paragraphs  do  not  always  lie  on  the  surface;  but 

- —   '     the  general  drift  of  this  third  main  division  of 

the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  seems  to  be  hardly  less 

obvious  than  that  of  the  two  earlier,  which  have 

already  been  considered  in  previous  volumes. 


PART   I. 

RELATIONS  TO  THE  WORLD  AS  A 
POSSESSION. 


AGAINST  COVETOUSNESS. 


11 


Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earthy  where  moth 
and  rust  doth  corrupt^  and  where  thieves  break  through  and  steal; 
hut  lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven^  where  neither  moth 
nor  rust  doth  corrupt^  and  where  thieves  do  not  break  through 
nor  steal:  for  where  your  treasure  w,  there  will  your  heart  be 
also.  The  light  of  the  body  is  the  eye :  if  therefore  thine  eye 
be  single,  thy  whole  body  shall  be  full  of  light.  But  if  thine 
eye  be  evil,  thy  whole  body  shall  be  full  of  darkness.  If  there- 
fore the  light  that  is  in  thee  be  darkness,  how  great  is  that 
darkness!  No  man  can  serve  two  masters:  for  either  he  will 
hate  the  one,  and  love  the  other ;  or  else  he  will  hold  to  the  one, 
and  despise  the  other.  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon. — 
Matt.  vi.  19-24  ;  cf.  Luke  xii,  33,  34,  xi.  34-36,  xvi.  13. 


12 


AGAINST  COVETOUSNESS. 

HOW  a  subject  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven      part  i. 
ought  to  hold  himself  related  to  worldly       first 
property,  is  the  point  determined  for  us  by  the 
King,  in  the  paragraph  which  fills  the  remainder 
of  this  sixth  chapter.     Questions  of  detail  are  not 
discussed ;  but  the  axe  is  laid  to  the  root  of  two 
errors,  lying  on  either  hand  of  the  christian  dis- 
ciple.   As,  in  the  later-spoken  parable  of  the  Sower,  cf.  Matt,  xiii 
those  thorns  which  choke  the  seed  in  even  the  best  leis. 
soil  are  described  as  of  two  species — the  one  '  the 
care  of  this  world,'  and  the  other  '  the  deceitful- 
ness  of  riches  ;'  so  here,  the  lot  of  rich  and  poor 
is  viewed  as  equally  beset,  though  by  an  opposite 
peril      On  one  side  lies  avarice,  the  idolatrous 
delight  of  the  possessor  in  his  possessions,  and  his 
strange  craving  to  add  to  them.      On  the  other, 
lies  over-anxious  fear  for  want,  and  the  distrustful 
care  about  to-morrow.     Opposed  as  they  are,  how- 
ever, and  besetting  opposite  social  classes,  these 
two  faults  meet  in  this,  that  both  alike  obscure 
the  spiritual  sense  for  divine  truth,  and  steal  the  Vers.  22-24. 
dominion  of  the  soul  from  God.     Both  covetous- 

13 


14  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PAKT  I.      ness  and  anxiety  make  the  inner  eye  evil,  and  set 
FIRST       up  a  rival  master  over  the  will.     Alike,  therefore, 
and  equally,  they  contradict  the  Christian's  fun- 
damental relationship  to  his  Father  in  heaven. 
Alike,   and   equally,   they  traverse  the  supreme 
2  Cor.  viii.  9 ;  example  of  our  Kincr,  Who,  when  He  was  rich 

c.  PMl.  ii.  6, 7,  ,    .     -,       ^     -,,  -,  .       . 

Greek.  euougu  to  DC  Grod  s  equal,  was  so  far  from  grasp- 

ing at  that  as  His  '  treasure,'  that,  for  our  sakes, 
He  humbled  Himself  and  became  poor ;  yet,  in 
His  day  of  poverty,  had  so  little  unworthy  dread 

John  iii.  35,     of  want,  that  He  still  knew  how  '  the  Father  had 

'  ^^*    *  given  all  things  into  His  hands,'  and  was  able  to 

say :  'All  Thine  are  Mine.'     Neither  of  those 

social  extremes,  from  which  a  wise  old  Hebrew 

Prov.  XXX.  8, 9.  prayed  to  be  kept,  will  succeed  in  corrupting  the 
simplicity  of  that  man's  piety,  who  not  only  hears 
the  words,  but  also  has  imbibed  the  spirit,  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Our  Lord's  first  warning  is  against  the  over- 
prizing of  earthly  possessions.  It  is  expressed 
Matt.  vi.  19,  with  intentional  largeness  of  language.  'Treasure 
not  treasures  for  yourselves'  is  a  phrase  which 
need  by  no  means  be  narrowed  to  money.  It 
covers  whatever  men  value  most  highly,  and,  be- 
cause they  value  it  most  highly,  take  most  pains 
to  increase,  if  it  be  capable  of  increase,  or  to  pre- 


Greek. 


Against  Covetoicsness. 


15 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


serve,  if  it  stand  in  risk  of  loss.  Nor  need  there 
be  any  reference  intended  to  the  intrinsic  value 
of  the  thing ;  for  our  human  hearts  have  the 
most  pathetic  habit  of  clothing  worthless  objects 
with  an  ideal  preciousness,  and  throwing  away 
their  love  and  care  on  that  which  is  contemptible. 
A  'treasure'  is  simply  each  man's  summum  homim; 
his  darling;  that  to  which,  be  it  noble  or  vile,  he 
has  elected  to  chncr  as  his  best  thincr,  over  which 
he  hangs  with  doating  pride,  from  which  he  tries 
to  suck  his  chief  delight,  and  for  which,  if  you 
offer  to  rob  him  of  it,  he  will  do  most  desperate 
battle.  Our  Lord  gives  us  the  best  insight  into 
the  wide  meaning  of  His  words,  when  He  defines  Ver.  21. 
a  '  treasure '  as  something  which  draws  the  heart 
after  it.  These  words  of  the  twenty-first  verse, 
'  Where  your  treasure  is,  there  will  your  heart  be 
also,'  carry  indeed  some  deeper  lesson  for  us;  but 
on  the  face  of  them,  they  do  at  least  tell  us  what 
a  '  treasure '  is ;  and  that  no  acquiring  of  posses- 
sions, nor  amassing  of  them,  will  turn  them  into 
treasures,  unless  we  consent  to  give  them  a  too 
forward  and  large  room  within  our  affections.  If 
we  do,  there  is  nothing  so  lofty  or  worthy  of  our 
love  but  Christ's  words  will  smite  it;  just  as  there 
is  nothing  so  sordid  or  paltry  but  men's  love  may 
over-prize  it.     • 


1 6  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.  There  is,  however,  one  species  of  possession 

FIRST       on  which  people  have  agreed  to  bestow  the  ex- 
clusive name  of  '  riches ;'  and  our  Lord's  words 
about  the  rust  and  moth  show  of  what  sort  of 
Cf.  Ezra  ii.  69 ;  treasures  He  was  most  directly  thinking.     Such 

Neh.  vii.  70 ;  ^  ^  ,  ^  ,  . 

Job  xxvii.  16 ;  treasures  as  the  moth  can  eat — those  rich  suits 
V.  2,  3.  '  of  superfluous  apparel  with  which  the  opulent 
Oriental  has  always  been  accustomed  to  fill  his 
wardrobe ;  such  treasures  as  rust  can  fret — all 
rare  or  costly  ornaments,  like  metals  of  price 
and  splendour;  treasures  which  thieves  can  dig 
for  to  steal,  like  jars  of  hoarded  coin  buried  in 
the  earth  or  concealed  within  the  household  safe: 
these,  in  a  land  where  banks  are  unknown,  and 
landed  property  not  always  to  be  had,  are  the 
natural  equivalents  for  our  modern  forms  of 
wealth.  It  indicates  how  prevailingly  the  heart 
of  man  is  set  on  property,  whether  in  kind  or 
currency,  that  this  wide  word  '  treasure '  has 
come  to  be  almost  exclusively  appropriated  by 
that  one  class  of  precious  things  which  are 
material  and  of  the  earth ;  just  as  we  call  our 
perishable  and  marketable  merchandise  by  the 
name  of  '  goods,'  as  if  nothing  else  were  so  good 
as  they.  To  most  men,  nothing  so  readily  be- 
comes a  treasure  as  money.  Nothing  wields  so 
wide  a  fascination,  or  subjects  so  many  human 


Covetousness. 


17 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


souls  to  an  abject  servitude,  as  money.      In  no      parti. 

age  has  the  pursuit  of  money  been  made  the  end 

of  life  by  a  larger  number  of  civilised  men,  or 

professed  by  them  to  be  the  end  of  their  life  with 

more  frank  audacity,  than  in  this  age.     The  words 

of  Jesus  are  therefore  so  far  from  obsolete,  that, 

spoken  though  they  were  long  ago,  and  by  an 

Oriental  to  Orientals,  no  words   could   possibly 

be  more  in  place  when  addressed  to  the  christian 

business  men  of  England  at  this  very  moment 

than  these  words :    Lay  not   up   for   yourselves 

such  treasures  as  these ;  of  all  objects  of  human 

desire  or  delight,  make  not  wealth  your  treasure; 

'  take  heed  and  beware  of  covetousness.'  Luke  xii.  15. 

Christ's  popular  didactic  style  rejected  all 
saving  clauses ;  yet  it  need  hardly  be  said,  that 
though  His  words  stand  unrestricted,  'Treasure 
no  treasures,'  He  cannot  mean  to  forbid  or  blame 
every  kind  of  hoarding  and  saving ;  such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  that  '  laying  up '  by  parents  for  their 
children  which  St.  Paul  commends  as  a  duty.  2  Cor.  xii.  14 
Eeasonable  thrift,  or  a  certain  measure  of  economy 
in  living,  which,  without  degenerating  into  parsi- 
mony, makes  prudent  provision  against  the  future, 
is  not  permissible  only,  but  dutiful.  The  im- 
provement of  one's  means  with  a  view  to  secure 
more    than   competence,   even    opulence,   in   the 

B 


WARNING, 


18  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom, 

PART  I.  hope  of  thereby  attaining  a  wider  power  to  serve 
FIRST  God  and  benefit  society ;  this  also  is,  to  say  the 
least,  permissible.  For  some  men  it  may  even 
be  a  laudable  ambition.  Wliat  is  in  every  case 
forbidden,  is  such  amassing  of  money,  or  endea- 
vours to  amass  it,  as  must  engross  affections  which 
ought  to  be  fixed  on  nobler  and  diviner  objects ; 
such  amassing  as  makes  of  money  the  '  treasure ' 
of  the  heart. 

Perhaps  few  persons,  who  have  not  looked  with 
some  keenness  into  character,  have  any  suspicion 
how  strong  and  general  is  the  fascination  which 
is  exercised  over  average  natures  by  the  sense  of 
property.  To  call  anything  for  the  first  time 
one's  own,  is  to  awaken  to  a  new  power,  and  ex- 
perience a  vivid  delight ;  as  you  may  see  by  the 
clutch  of  almost  infant  fingers  on  the  coin  you 
give  them.  To  feel  that  what  one  has  can  grow; 
that  money  well  used  will  breed  money ;  that  in 
the  process  of  gaining,  there  is  opened  a  path  of 
delightful  activity  practically  endless :  this  is  for 
many  young  men  in  our  day  the  first  seductive 
and  perilous  discovery  of  their  lives.  The  stimu- 
lant of  money-making,  with  its  exciting  hazards 
and  the  zest  which  competition  lends  to  it,  may  be- 
come first  delicious,  then  intoxicating,  and  at  length 
indispensable,  just  like  any  other  stimulant.     The 


Against  Covetousness, 


19 


growth  of  tliis  appetite  is  no  less  easy  or  insidi- 
aus,  and  it  is  far  more  unobserved  and  unrebuked 
by  public  opinion,  than  the  appetite  for  drink  or 
gaming.  Our  own  generation  has  witnessed  the 
spectacle  of  whole  communities  driven  to  frenzy 
for  a  time  by  a  gold  fever.  There  is  no  genera- 
tion but  has  seen  individual  cases  of  moral  in- 
sanity induced  from  the  same  cause.  Those  cases 
in  which  the  love  of  money  for  its  own  sake  has 
come  to  eat  up  all  other  loves  which  at  the  first 
were  mingled  with  it,  such  as  love  of  speculation, 
love  of  display,  love  of  the  deference  men  pay  the 
rich,  or  love  of  the  luxuries  money  can  procure ; 
till  the  poor  hoarder  hardens  and  shrivels  into 
that  meanest  of  human  creatures,  whose  wretched- 
ness and  despicableness  are  both  stamped  upon 
the  very  name  of  '  miser '  which  we  give  him ; — 
such  cases,  I  say,  are,  happily  for  human  nature, 
always  rare.  But  the  sin  of  avarice — the  sin  of 
erecting  property  into  a  '  treasure '  of  the  heart — 
assumes  countless  shapes  less  repulsive  than  that. 
In  truth,  it  seldom  appears  alone,  and  never 
appears  so  all  at  once.  Characters  of  men  are 
not  such  simple  things  that  you  can  describe 
them  in  a  word.  This  particular  vice  enters 
readily  into  combination  with  vanity,  with  ambi- 
tion, with  luxury,  with  mere  delight  in  successful 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


20  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      activity.      It  hides  itself,  too,  under  the  specious 
FIRST       cloak  of  diligence  in  business,  or  of  foresight,  or 
of  a  desire  to  be  generous  and  bountiful ;  and  in 
such  disguise,  it  may  too  easily  escape  detection 
by  the  man  himself,  whose  soul  it  is  darkening 
and   enslaving.     Yet  even  as   thus   modified  or 
disguised,  it  is  in  its  essence  what  St.  Paul  twice 
Eph.  V.  5 ;  Col.  calls  it,  an  '  idolatry,'  and  in  its  issue  a  fertile 
vi.'  10,  Greek.   '  root  of  all  cvils.'     He  who,  in  an  age  like  the 
present — almost  in   any  age — would   keep   his 
soul  from  this  poison,  and  yet  conduct  with  dili- 
gence and  success  the  business  of  life,  has  need 
both  to  watch  narrowly  the  state  of  his  own  heart, 
and  to  study  the  workings  of  the  evil  in  the  men 
around  him.     To  speak  the  truth,  money,  in  every 
one  of  its  bearings,  is  a  thing  of  peril.     To  desire 
1  Tim.  vi.  9,  cf.  to  gain  it,  especially  to  gain  it  fast,  is  perilous : 
22.^^*  '  because  the  rising  man  of  business,  who  has  his 

fortune  to  make,  and  is  in  haste  to  make  it,  is  on 
a  road  strewn  thick  with  lies  and  roguery,  with 
tricks,  conspiracies,  and  speculations  which  exceed 
the  bounds  of  prudence  ;  and  it  is  hard  indeed 
to  devote  the  energies  of  body  and  soul,  by  day 
and  night,  to  one  end  with  such  intensity  as  the 
making  of  a  fortune  does  now  ordinarily  demand, 
without  coming  to  attach  an  altogether  unreason- 
able value  to  the  gains  which  have  cost  so  much. 


Against  Covetousness.  21 

How  easily  does  a  hard- won  fortune  become  the  part  i. 
'  treasure '  of  the  winner's  life  !  To  have  made  first 
money  is  nearly  as  perilous  as  to  desire  it  The 
merchant  who  has  spent  life  in  acquiring,  ends  it 
commonly  in  spendiug  ;  but  having  forgotten  to 
learn  how  to  spend  it  well,  he  runs  the  risk  of 
either  falling  into  self-indulgent  luxury,  like  that 
of  Dives  in  the  parable,  or  of  wasting  his  sub- Lukexvi.  I9ff. 
stance  in  vulgar  display.  Designing  to  purchase 
for  himself  the  reputation  of  a  man  of  means  and 
elegance,  he  may  in  reality  earn  only  the  charac- 
ter of  a  purse-proud  upstart.  Nor  is  it  much  less 
perilous  to  inherit  than  to  gain  a  fortune.  The 
complacency  of  the  proprietor  who  reposes  on  the 
winnings  of  a  dead  ancestor,  his  pride  of  family, 
his  envy  of  older  or  richer  houses,  and  his  chuckle 
of  quiet  contempt  for  the  '  self-made '  man,  betray 
an  idolatry  to  his  patrimonial  treasures  as  deep  as 
any.  Take  it  how  you  will,  in  fact,  with  what 
varieties  of  surrounding  your  knowledge  of  the 
world  may  suggest  to  you,  wealth  is  everywhere 
the  most  insidious  and  fascinating  and  dangerous 
of  all  those  things  which  steal  away  the  souls  of 
men  to  become  their  'treasure'  and  their  idol. 
It  were  better  for  any  man  who  finds  himself 
entangled  in  that  mesh  whose  threads  are  of  gold, 
to  alienate  his  superfluous  gains  by  one  supreme 


22 


The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 


PART  I. 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


act  of  sacrifice,  cutting  off  for  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven's  sake  the  '  right  hand/  which  has  learnt 
to  clutch  too  eagerly  or  hold  too  fast  the  treasures 
of  the  earth. 

Nor  is  this  idolatry  even  a  very  wise  or  noble 
one  among  the  idolatries  of  mankind.  Sundry 
reasons  against  making  money  our  treasure  are 
enforced  by  our  blessed  Lord  in  this  strong  dis- 
suasive of  His  ;  but  the  first  and  simplest  is  in- 
sinuated in  the  very  words  of  the  warning  itself 
It  is  a  poor  sort  of  treasure  which  perishes  so 
soon,  and  perishes  so  meanly  too,  as  do  our 
earthly  gains.  Money  has  no  manner  of  divine- 
ness  about  it,  either  inherent  or  representative. 
The  ancient  Greek  or  modern  Hindu,  who  has 
conceived  a  divinity  of  some  sort  to  be  imaged 
for  him  by  the  statue  in  the  shrine,  does  a  nobler 
thing  when  he  bows  before  that  semblance  or 
remembrancer  of  what  is  the  highest,  wisest,  and 
best  he  knows, — the  sum,  to  his  belief,  of  super- 
human and  unchanging  excellence, — than  they  do, 
who,  in  the  commercial  idolatry  of  England,  sacri- 
fice their  spiritual  capacities,  and  what  is  divinest 
in  their  hearts,  to  money-making.  For  what  is 
this  same  money  ?  Not  by  any  one  supposed  to 
be  at  all  divine,  or  to  bear  any  manner  of  relation 
to  any  Power  holier  than  myself ;  no  emblem  to 


Against  Covetousness,  23 

us  of  Him  Who  is  worthy  of  worship  :  but  a  very      part  i. 
poor  and  swift-perishing  bit  of  earth  ;  one  of  the       fiest 

-      -  ,  ,       ,  •     •    .  J        .-I  WARNING, 

meanest  of  the  creatures  made  to  minister  to  the 
physical  necessities  of  the  least  of  us.  At  its  best, 
it  is  a  slave  ordained  to  serve  the  transient  wants 
of  the  body,  and  then,  like  the  body  which  it 
serves,  to  die  and  pass  :  no  more.  The  moth 
which  eats  into  the  silken  tissues  of  the  East 
and  makes  out  of  their  brilliant  folds  only  a  fret- 
work of  decay  ;  the  thief  who  digs  an  entrance  to 
the  ill-guarded  pot  of  gold  through  the  Oriental's 
house  of  clay,  are  emblems  of  that  inevitable  inse- 
curity which  attaches  to  all  earthly  property,  and 
of  that  waste  which  must  one  day  dissipate  its 
preciousness.  What  we  moderns  invest  in  trade 
or  in  the  funds,  is  as  liable  to  '  make  itself  wings '  Prov.  xxiiL  5. 
as  the  treasures  of  an  eastern  home.  It  was  the 
nature  of  such  material  property  as  men  stored 
up  of  old,  to  lose  by  flux  of  time ;  and  although 
in  modern  mercantile  affairs  one  may  object  that 
it  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  quality  of  wealth  to  in- 
crease itself,  still  it  can  only  be  increased  by  being 
risked.  The  faster  you  desire  to  make  it  grow, 
the  greater  likelihood  you  run  of  losing  it  through 
chance  of  trade  or  fraud  of  men.  Make  nothing 
by  your  capital ;  it  wastes,  slowly  but  surely,  by 
mere  expenditure,  or  at  any  rate,  by  depreciation 


24  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom, 

PART  I.      in  its  relative  value  :  make  much  by  it,  and  you 
FIRST       chance  the  loss  of  all.     You  can  only  avoid  the 

WARNING.  .  .  1    .     A.  .1 

rust  by  exposing  it  to  the  '  thiei.  Above  all, 
it  is  to  be  remembered  that  we  are  more  perish- 
able than  our  goods.  If  we  could  remain,  they 
would  go.      If  they  remain,  at  least  we  go.     We 

Job  xiii.  28.  are  such  creatures  as  '  consume  like  a  garment 
that  is  moth-eaten  ;'  and  each  of  us  could  name 
one  crowned  and  sceptred  thief,  who  shall  ere 

Cf.  2  Cor.  V.  1.  long  dig  through  the  clay  walls  of  our  mortal 
house,  to  rob  us  of  our  treasures  in  robbing  us  of 
our  life.  When  death  takes  a  man's  breath  away, 
it  takes  his  purse  as  well;  disinherits  him  of 
his  lands  ;  unrobes  him  of  earthly  raiment ;  and 
despatches  him,  lonely,  naked,  shivering,  a  poor 
despoiled  ghost,  into  the  unknown.  In  that  day, 
when  the  head  which  presses  a  pillow  of  down 
and  is  laved  by  jewelled  fingers,  lies  no  easier  in 
its  death-sweat  than  any  other ;  in  that  day,  when 
the  gathered  treasures  of  a  whole  lifetime  are  slip- 
ping through  the  unwilling  grasp,  to  go  to  other 
hands  that  are  no  less  greedy,  and  a  land  must 
be  entered  where  gold  and  purple  are  words  un- 
heard :  then,  surely,  in  the  desolation  of  all  earthly 
delight  and  the  scattering  for  ever  of  earth's 
hoarded  gain,  shall  these  words  return,  like  a 
too-late  reproach  in  dying  ears :  '  Lay  not  up  for 


Against  Covetousness.  25 

yourselves  treasures  upon  earth,  but  lay  up  for      part  i. 
yourselves   treasures    in    heaven,   where   neither       first 
moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt,  and  where  thieves 
do  not  break  through  nor  steal.' 


There  is  a  better  use,  our  Lord  would  have  us 
understand,  to  be  made  of  our  wealth,  than  make 
a  treasure  of  it.     As  He  taught  expressly  in  the 
parable  of  the  Unjust  Steward,  so  He  probably  Luke  xvi.  1-12; 
desired  to  insinuate  here,  that  money  well  spent  21  (words 

which  occur  in 

on  earth  for  God  and  for  His  kingdom  will  be  Luke's  version 

.of  our  text :  s. 

found  at  last  to  be  weU-spent  money  indeed,  xii.  33).  Also  1 
transmuted  in  the  rewards  of  heaven  into  an  im- 
perishable treasure.  However  this  may  be.  He 
does  at  least  set  over  against  the  precious  things 
of  this  life  another  description  of  gains,  the  en- 
joyment of  which  is  reserved  for  a  life  to  come. 
It  is  not  only  by  a  conscientious  and  charitable 
administration  of  our  income,  but  by  every  act  of 
affectionate  devotion  to  God  and  to  His  will,  that 
we  are  to  lay  up  for  ourselves  rewards  against  the 
heavenly  state.  That  commendation  by  the  Father  Matt.  vL  1,  4, 
in  secret  which  our  Lord  has  just  been  promising 
to  every  genuine  worshipper,  extends  itself  to  all 
christian  obedience  and  the  whole  service  of  a 
faithful  life.  ISTor  is  it  to  end  in  barren  commen- 
dation, but  to  entail  a  rich,  though  as  yet  un- 


2  6  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      known  '  reward.'     The  sum  of  all  siicli  rewards 
FIRST       of  grace,  laid  up  meanwhile  in  the  just  purposes 

WARNING.  n     ^        ^  i        t      i  i      i^    i  i  i 

01  the  heavenly  Judge,  shall  be  one  day  the  ever- 
1  Pet.  i.  4.  lasting  possession,  the  incorruptible  and  unfading 
inheritance,  of  the  sons  of  God.  This  is  for  man 
Luke  xii.  21.  the  true  riches — riches  toward  God  ;  and  on  such 
treasures  Jesus  would  have  His  followers  set  their 
hearts.  So  to  earn  money  as  in  the  upright  labour 
by  which  we  earn  it  to  please  the  Father ;  so  to 
save  money  as  in  the  purpose  and  temper  with 
which  we  save  it  to  please  the  Father ;  so  to  spend 
money  as  in  the  use  to  which  we  put  it  and  the 
good  we  do  by  it,  to  please  the  Father ;  but  ever  to 
keep  it  in  its  place  as  our  servant  and  the  Father's 
gift,  a  trust  to  be  neither  rejoiced  in  for  its  own 
sake  nor  squandered  in  its  superfluity  on  vain 
personal  delight,  but  diligently  to  be  put  to  holy 
service  in  the  honouring  of  Him  and  the  com- 
forting of  His  children :  this  is  the  attitude  our 
Master  would  plainly  have  us  hold  to  this  needful 
though  perilous  possession.  This  is  to  turn  a  base 
thing  not  only  to  honest,  but  even  to  noble  use. 
This  is  to  exchange  earthly  wealth  for  a  heavenly 
treasure. 

It  is  only  when  a  soul  has  become  inflamed 
with  a  passion  for  those  divine  rewards  which 
are  as  yet  only  promised,  not  tasted,  and  is  up- 


Against  Covetousness.  27 

held  by  patient  faith  in  such  riches  to  come,  that      part  i. 
it  can  afiford  to  spurn  for  the  sake  of  God  the       fh^t 

.  WARNING. 

seduction  oi  gold,  lor  men  who  are  already 
rich,  and  have  learned  to  pride  themselves  on 
their  riches,  it  is  so  hard  to  enter  the  kingdom  Mark  x.  23-27. 
of  God  as  to  be  the  next  thing  to  impossible. 
Even  men  like  those  whom  Christ  was  addressing 
on  the  mount,  who  were  as  yet  poor,  and,  while 
poor,  had  already  entered  that  kingdom,  were 
still  in  danger  from  a  new-born  lust  to  gain  and 
to  own  a  portion  in  this  life.  While  He  addressed 
them,  He  may  have  seen  in  the  hearts  of  these 
peasants  whom  He  had  just  made  princes  in  the 
kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  a  dawning  of  covetousness 
as  well  as  of  ambition — a  hope  stirring  blindly 
within  them,  that  to  follow  this  King  might  prove 
to  be  the  path  to  fortune  not  less  than  to  honour. 
At  any  cost,  such  a  seduction  must  be  in  chris- 
tian hearts  withstood.  During  the  course  of  His 
earnest  dissuasive  against  laying  up  treasures  on 
earth,  He  had  insinuated  one  indirect  argument 
in  support  of  His  prohibition,  drawn  from  the 
perishableness  of  what  is  earthly.  To  any  one 
who  has  so  much  as  realized  his  own  immortality, 
it  must  appear  foolish,  to  say  no  more,  and  un- 
worthy of  himself,  to  gather  wealth  which  is  cor- 
ruptible and  transitory  instead  of  such  as  shall 


28  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      last  him  for  ever.     But  our  Lord  does  not  trust 
FIRST       to  the  influence  of  this  single  consideration.     The 

WARNING.  .  ^  11-  -i       1      1  T  -1  11 

passion  lor  gold  wins  its  hold  too  easily  and  keeps 
it  too  tenaciously,  even  on  christian  hearts,  to  be 
subdued  by  an  argument  drawn  from  the  remote, 
unworldly  future.  Therefore  our  Teacher  pro- 
ceeds to  adduce  in  quick  succession  no  fewer  than 
three  additional  and  more  express  reasons  against 
the  amassing  of  earthly  treasures ;  reasons,  every 
one  of  which  is  drawn  from  the  damage  which 
the  treasuring  of  such  treasures  must  inflict  even 
now  upon  the  spiritual  life  of  a  christian  disciple. 
Our  Lord  is  speaking  to  men  who  are  already  in 
His  kingdom ;  who  not  only  look  for  the  rewards 
of  the  Father  in  some  better  state  after  death, 
but  who  profess  to  care,  more  than  for  anything 
else,  to  have  the  Father's  rule  set  up  within  them 
in  this  present  life,  to  see  God's  face  here  below, 
to  walk  within  His  light,  and  to  fill  their  hearts 
with  His  love.  And  He  warns  them,  that  to 
prize  earthly  gains  for  their  own  sake,  or  hunt 
after  them  and  hoard  them,  is  not  only  to  forfeit 
the  future  rewards  of  heaven,  but  it  is  to  drag  the 
heart  itself  down  from  heaven  to  earth ;  it  is  to 
cloud  or  distort  the  soul's  vision  of  God ;  it  is  to 
dethrone  the  Father,  and  become  a  vassal  to  a 
baser  lord.     That  Jesus  should  have  deemed  it 


Against  Covetousness. 


29 


wise  to  pursue  this  golden  idol  with  so  many- 
redoubled  blows,  proves  how  close  and  urgent  was 
the  danger  of  such  idolatry  even  in  the  case  of 
the  apostles.  The  busy  money-makers  of  this 
generation  are  at  least  no  less  exposed  to  such  a 
danger  than  that  handful  of  Galilean  operatives 
can  have  been,  who  sat  round  a  Galilean  carpenter 
to  hear  these  words  ;  and  therefore  it  will  be  well 
worth  our  pains  to  look  a  little  closely  at  those 
three  evils  to  spiritual  life  which  are  here  traced 
directly  to  the  love,  or  even  to  the  amassing,  of 
money. 


PART  I. 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


1.  I  say, '  even  to  the  amassing  of  money  ;'  for,  Ver.  21. 
by  His  first  objection  to  earthly  treasures,  I  un- 
derstand our  Lord  to  mean  that  the  very  heap- 
ing up  of  worldly  wealth  draws  men  to  love  it.  > 
'  Where  thy  treasure  is,'  He  says,  '  there  will  thy 
heart  be  also.'  ^  It  is  true  that,  in  the  pregnant 
ethical  sense  in  which  our  Lord  chiefly  intends 
the  word,  a  thing  does  not  become  a  man's  trea-  See  above, 

p  15 
sure,  no  matter  how  much  he  may  have  of  it, 

until  it  has  drawn  his  heart  to  itself.     At  the 

same  time,  the  word  '  treasure '  only  receives  this 

pregnant  ethical  signification  in  the  second  place. 


^  The  best  critical  editions  read  (tou  ;  not  vf^uv,  as  in  Luke 
xii.  34. 


3  0  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      It  primarily  means  anything  laid  up  or  amassed ; 

FIRST  any  superfluous  possession,  stored  for  delight  or 
for  the  future,  rather  than  for  immediate  use. 
Now  there  is  an  important  moral  fact  shadowed 
forth  by  this  deepening  of  the  word's  signification. 
What  one  treasures,  in  the  primary  sense,  tends 
to  become  his  treasure  in  the  deeper  sense.  It 
draws  his  heart  after  it.  Every  possession  which 
a  man  likes  to  have  without  using  it,  and  lays 
past  for  the  pride  of  having  it,  and  strives  con- 
tinually to  increase,  may  be  a  harmless  enough 
treasure  at  first,  so  long  as  his  interest  in  it  re- 
mains quite  subordinate ;  but  its  tendency  is  more 
and  more  to  draw  him  into  itself,  to  engage  his 
interest  more  deeply,  and  become  more  precious 
in  his  eyes.  Of  course,  this  proneness  to  doat 
upon  any  possession  is  strengthened  by  the  pains 
we  take  to  add  to  it,  or  the  sacrifices  we  must 
incur  in  order  to  preserve  it.  The  fortune  which 
a  busy  man  toils  late  and  early  to  augment,  and 
for  the  sake  of  which  his  head  has  been  blanched 
with  anxiety ;  or  the  estate  which  is  purchased 
at  the  expense  of  what  ought  to  have  been  patri- 
mony to  his  younger  children,  only  that  he  may 
feel  the  pride  of  proprietorship:  these  possessions 
have  acquired  a  fictitious  dearness  through  the 
heavy  price  which  they  have  cost.     But  this  is 


Against  Covetousness. 


31 


not  all.  The  mere  laying  up  and  keeping  by  us 
of  anything  which  is  superfluous,  whether  it  cost 
much  or  not,  whether  we  are  adding  to  its  costli- 
ness or  not,  has  a  certain  quality  of  seductiveness 
about  it,  provided  only  we  cherish  either  joy  or 
pride  in  the  possession  of  it.  There  is  nothing 
wrong,  then,  in  the  joyful  or  proud  possession  of 
what  is  rare  or  lovely  or  for  any  reason  precious  ? 
No,  not  of  necessity,  by  any  means.  But  there 
must  always  be  danger  at  least  in  the  amassing 
of  such  property ;  danger  that  the  joy  of  posses- 
sion will  come  to  intoxicate  and  seduce  the  heart. 
Only  to  have  a  very  great  deal  of  any  precious 
thing ;  to  make  a  store  of  it,  and  be  proud  of  it ; 
still  more,  to  consult  much  how  to  secure  it,  or 
toil  much  to  add  to  it;  whether  the  treasure  be  so 
noble  as  influence  or  knowledge,  or  so  petty,  as  a 
drawerful  of  curiosities,  or  so  common  as  a  little 
wealth:  this  is  to  run  the  risk  of  having  the 
heart  narrowed  by  degrees,  and  lowered  to  that 
region  of  life  where  the  treasure  lies. 

Against  such  a  danger  the  Christian  must  be 
continually  on  his  guard.  It  is  taken  for  granted, 
what  no  Christian  will  question,  that  his  supreme 
love,  pride,  joy,  desire — in  one  word,  his  'heart ' — 
is  due  to  Him  Who  is  above,  and  to  those  things  of 
His  which  are  above ;  to  God,  and  the  pleasing  of 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


3  2  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PAUT  I.       God,  and  the  fulfilment  of  the  will,  and  the  in- 
FiRST       crease  of  the  honour,  of  God.     What  St.  Paul  in 
cf  Col  iii  2  •  ^^^  companion  letters  to  Colosse  and  Philippi  has 
PhU.  iii.  20.     expressly  insisted  on,  is  here  by  St.  Paul's  Master 
still  more  strikingly  assumed.       The  heart  of  a 
disciple  of  Christ  will  come  to  be  with  his  trea- 
sures on  the  earth,  if  he  once  suffer  himself  to  lay 
up  for  himself  any  such  treasures ;  and  that,  you 
feel  that  the  Master  feels,  is  a  self-refuting  and  pre- 
posterous issue  to  a  disciple's  earthly  treasuring. 
It  belongs  to  the  very  idea  of  a  Christian,  that 
what  he  sets  his  heart  on  cannot  be  here  at  all, 
Cf.  Eph.  ii.  6.  but  must  be  above  in  the  heavenly  places,  among 
the  incorruptibles.      There  is  no  need  in  his  case 
for  any  Sursum  corda  !     His  heart  is  on  high. 
But  there  is  need  still  for  the  warning :  Treasure 
no   treasures  below ;  for   earthly  treasures   drag 
down  heavenly  hearts.     'Where  thy  treasure  is, 
there  will  thy  heart  be  also.' 

The  next  two  reasons  for  abstaining  from  stor- 
ing earth's  precious  things  are  expressed  under  a 
metaphorical  dress  ;  and  although  in  both  cases 
the  explanation  of  the  metaphor  is  appended,  yet 
the  abruptness  with  which  these  sentences  are 
introduced,  and  their  apparent  remoteness  at  first 
sight  from  the  train  of  thought  hitherto  followed, 


Against  Covetousness. 


33 


have  occasioned  some  difficulty  in  determining 
the  inner  connection  of  the  passage.  Let  it  be 
kept  in  view,  that  the  Preacher's  design  is  to  dis- 
suade His  followers  from  amassing  wealth,  by 
tracing  its  evil  effects  on  the  spiritual  life.  Its 
first  natural  effect  we  have  seen  to  be  the  down- 
dragging  of  the  heart  from  its  celestial  object  to 
settle  around  its  earthly  gains.  Now,  the  central 
ideas  in  the  next  two  sentences  are,  first  the 
darkening,  and  then  the  enslavement,  of  the  soul. 
But  it  needs  no  acuteness  to  perceive  that  these 
two  are  the  most  obvious  of  all  consequences  from 
such  a  degradation  of  the  affections  as  He  has  just 
spoken  of.  Only  let  the  heart  be  kept  down  to 
the  earthl}^  sphere  through  those  treasures  which 
a  man  has  laid  up  for  himself,  so  that  his  chief 
interest  is  no  longer  in  God,  but  in  his  gold ;  and 
it  must  follow,  (1)  that  his  spiritual  vision  for 
divine  truth  will  become  obscured,  and  (2)  that 
gold  will  take  the  place  of  God  as  the  real  master 
of  the  man's  practical  life.  In  other  words,  the 
displacement  of  God  from  the  seat  of  the  affections 
acts  injuriously,  both  on  the  faculty  of  spiritual 
insight,  and  on  the  loyalty  of  the  wiU  to  duty. 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


2.  The  amassing  of  money,  then,  has  led  to  the  Vers.  22,  23. 
love  of  money ;  and  the  first  thing  which  the  love 
c 


34  The  Relations  of  tJie  Kingdom. 

PART  I.       of  money  does  is  to  put  out  the  eye  of  the  soul. 

FIRST        For  the  spiritual  nature,  as  our  Lord  everywhere 

taught,  has  its  own  faculty  of  vision,  just  as  the 

See  Joiin  i.  9,   body  has.     What  the  sun  does  for  the  enlighten- 

xii.''^5,'36,"46;  ment  of  our  physical  life,  so  that  we  can  recog- 

v!^5;  Eph.?.^'  nise  the  objects  by  which  we  are  surrounded  in 

4^  ;^i^Johir'i.  this  world  and  order  our  movements  with  regard 

5-7,  u.  8-11.     ^^  them,  God,  revealing  Himself  to  us  in  His  Son 

Jesus,  does  for  the  moral  and  religious  life  of  men. 

By  the  truth  which  shines  in  the  face  of  Him 

Who  is  '  the  Light  of  the  world,'  each  one  who 

will  may  always  realize  divine  facts  and  things, 

which  are  none  the  less  real  for  being  immaterial, 

and  may  walk  no  longer,  as  a  spiritual  being,  in 

the  dark,  but  in  the  light.     Only  the  condition  of 

such  spiritual  illumination,  as  of  physical,  is,  that 

the  organ  by  which  we  see  God  be  kept  healthy. 

Faith  is  the  spiritual  equivalent  of  vision ;  and 

See  Matt.  v.  8.  it  is  the  pure  heart  alone  which  so  believes  as  to 

see  God.     In  other  words,  this  faculty  of  spiritual 

insight,  or  receptivity  of  the  soul  for  moral  and 

religious  truth,  depends  upon  the  simplicity  or 

integrity  of  the  man's  spiritual  nature,  that  is  to 

say,  upon  the  whole-heartedness  with  which  he 

loves  and  desires  God.     To  love  God  is  to  be  able 

to  see  His  light ;  to  let  one's  love  fall  upon  a  base 

earthly  treasure,  is  to  hurt  the  most  sensitive  and 


Against  Covetousness.  35 

necessary  of  our  spiritual  faculties  ;  it  is  to  trouble      part  i. 
the  eye  of  the  soul,  to  confuse  its  vision  of  divine        first 
things  as  they  are,  and  in  the  end  to  destroy  the 
action  of  that  '  faith '  which  is  '  the  evidence/ 
the  realizing  perception,  of  things  unseen.  Heb.  xi.  i, 

Our  Lord's  parable  becomes  now,  by  the  help 
of  His  use  of  similar  imagery  elsewhere,  very  clear 
indeed.  '  The  eye,'  He  says,  '  is  the  lamp  of  the  o  xy;^,6f,ver  22. 
body ;'  not  the  ultimate  source  of  its  light,  but 
its  centre  of  enlightenment ;  a  kind  of  miniature 
and  second-hand  luminary,  or  light-bringer,  to  all 
the  rest  of  our  physical  organs,  without  which, 
as  in  blind  people,  all  the  bodily  life  is  darkened, 
like  a  house  by  night  without  a  candle.  The 
condition  of  enlightenment  is  the  soundness  of 
this  little  tender  organ  :  if  it  be  '  right,'  or  in  a  iTXej;?. 
normal  state,  the  whole  body  is,  as  it  were,  lit  up  ; 
whereas  if  it  be  '  bad,'  in  a  diseased  condition,  it  T«r/i«k. 
matters  not  what  sunshine  may  flood  the  earth, 
your  body  will  be  all  darkened,  like  a  house  with- 
out a  window.  Now,  then,  comes  the  application  of 
the  parable.  '  In  thee,'  says  Jesus  to  His  christian 
disciple,  there  is  also  '  light,'  through  the  organ  « ?*?. 
of  spiritual  vision,  whose  powder  depends  upon  its 
moral  soundness,  singleness,  and  simplicity.  By 
it,  when  in  spiritual  health,  thou  canst  see  God, 
and    in  His  light  canst   see   all   things  clearly.  cf.Ps  xxxvi  9. 


WARNING. 


36  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

Then  the  naturally  dark  appetencies  and  passions 
FIRST  of  thy  lower  nature  are  illuminated,  and  guided 
to  their  proper  service,  along  their  bounded  paths  ; 
and  all  the  inner  life  is  made  orderly,  conscious, 
bright,  and  healthful.  But  if  even  this  divine 
light  that  is  in  thee  be  turned  again  to  darkness, 
through  the  disordering  of  that  spiritual  organ, 
how  great,  alas!  shall  be  the  darkness  of  'the  dark' 
itself ;  of  that  lower  animal  nature,  whose  blind 
appetites  are  no  longer  ruled  by  the  insight  which 
was  wont  to  guide,  or  checked  by  the  illumination 
which  was  wont  to  shame  them  ! 

Our  Lord  has  not  said  here^  that  it  is  the  de- 
gradation of  a  Christian's  affection  to  earthly  pro- 
perty which,  by  destroying  the  singleness,  impairs 
the  sensitiveness  of  his  spiritual  vision ;  and  per- 
haps He  has  only  not  said  so,  because  it  does  not 
really  matter  what  idol  divides  our  affections  with 
the  things  above.  ^N'o  divided  or  impure  heart 
whatever  can  clearly  and  steadily  see  the  light  of 
God.  But  we  do  not  need  to  be  told  what  a 
darkening  influence  is  exercised  over  christian 
men  by  the  love  of  money  in  particular.  We  are 
unhappily  too  familiar  with  its  ravages  in  the 
modern  church  :  with  disciples,  genuine  enough, 
zealous  sometimes  to  a  fault,  and  loud  in  their 
profession  of  Christianity,  who  nevertheless  be- 


Against  Covetousness. 


37 


PART  I. 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


tray,  "by  the  stationariness  of  their  moral  charac- 
ter, or  by  their  unconscious  perseverance  in  faulty 
habits  which  every  one  notices  but  themselves, 
or  by  overlooking  very  obvious  duties  lying  in 
their  path,  that  they  cannot  be  walking  open-eyed 
in  the  light  of  God.  Christians  who  throughout 
the  greater  part  of  life  remain  unchastened,  un- 
gentle, unmellowed,  hardly  distinguishable  from 
the  utter  worldling  by  reason  of  their  petty,  grasp- 
ing, saving  ways,  are  frequent  enough  everywhere. 
Were  the  cause  of  such  blear-eyed  religion  to  be 
faithfully  inquired  after,  or  could  it  be  plainly 
told,  how  often  would  it  prove  to  be  just  this — 
that  the  real  desire  of  their  heart  is  not  bent  with 
single-minded  longing  upon  the  attainment  of  God's 
approval  or  of  His  celestial  rewards,  but  has  be- 
come diverted  to  an  excessive  degree  on  temporal 
objects,  chained  down  to  earth  and  made  earthy 
by  the  over-eager  pursuit  of  success,  or  by  an 
over- warm  delight  in  such  perishable  gains  as  they 
have  been  able  to  win  for  themselves  in  the 
scramble  of  business  !  With  such  Christians  a 
reverse  process  has  been  going  on  from  that  which 
happened  to  the  converts  of  Ephesus.  The  eyes  Eph.  i.  18, 
of  those  hearts  at  Ephesus  were  enlightened,  so  rected  text, 
that  they  saw  the  riches  of  God's  own  inheritance 
— the  celestial  wealth  destined   for  children  of 


38 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 


God  in  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  their  Father. 
But  we  suffer  the  dazzle  of  corruptible  gold  to  fall 
across  our  vision,  and  draw  after  it  the  worship 
of  the  heart ;  then  our  eyes  which  were  full  of 
heaven's  own  light  grow  dim  again,  the  celestial 
glory  fades  away,  the  shining  crown  suspended 
over  christian  heads  has  leave  to  hang  there  un- 
seen, and  we  toil  on  to  rake  together  in  the  dark 
what  is  but  dust  after  all,  though  it  be  the  dust 
of  gold.^ 


3.  There  is  a  more  disastrous  fate  still  in  store 
for  the  disciple  who  falls  under  the  fascination  of 
gain.  Loss  of  sight,  or  a  gradual  obscuring  of 
that  eye  of  the  heart  which  looks  upward  and 
sees  God,  is  accompanied,  on  the  practical  side  of 
life,  by  captivity  of  the  will.  The  image  here 
used  by  our  Lord  is  transparent  enough ;  and  yet 
the  force  of  His  language  has  been  a  good  deal 
lost  in  translation,  through  that  happy  change 
which  since  He  spoke  has  lightened  the  condi- 

1  *  The  Interpreter  takes  them  apart  again,  and  has  them  first 
into  a  room  where  was  a  man  that  could  look  no  way  but  down- 
wards, with  a  muck-rake  in  his  hand  :  there  stood  also  One 
over  his  head  with  a  celestial  crown  in  His  hand,  and  proffered 
him  that  crown  for  his  muck-rake  ;  but  the  man  did  neither 
look  up  nor  regard,  but  did  rake  to  himseK  the  straws,  the 
small  sticks,  and  the  dust  of  the  floor.' — Pilgrim's  Progress, 
Part  II. 


Against  Covetousness. 


39 


tions  of  servitude,  and  made  all  words  to  describe 
the  obedience  of  man  to  man  less  grievous  to  the 
ear.  We  are  so  far  removed  from  every  associa- 
tion with  slavery,  that  when  we  read,  '  No  man 
can  serve  two  masters,'  we  think  only  of  such 
voluntary  service  as  one  free-born  Englishman 
may  contract  to  pay  another.  The  language 
carries  a  vastly  harsher  sense.  The  service  of 
which  Jesus  spoke,  and  which  His  hearers  under- 
stood Him  to  mean,  was  the  utter  subjection  of 
a  bond-slave  to  the  mere  will — the  almost  un- 
checked caprice — of  a  slave-lord.  This  impossi- 
bility which  He  so  sharply  emphasizes,  is  that 
which  any  domestic^  slave  would  encounter  who 
should  endeavour  to  hold  himself  at  the  beck  of 
two  different  lords,  each  at  the  head  of  a  separate 
and  independent  household.  That  the  two  lords 
are  assumed  to  have  contrasted  jurisdictions,  and 
to  issue  contrary  orders,  is  obvious.  In  fact,  if 
the  orders  of  both  coincided,  there  would  in  reality 
be  only  one  lordship,  one  rule.  Let  it  be  noticed, 
however,  that  this  alleged  impossibility  of  execut- 
ing the  will  of  two  contrary  masters  is  not  made 
to  depend  on  the  physical  obstacle,  that  a  slave 
cannot  be  in  two  households  or  do  two  diverse 


PART  I. 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


1  Cf.  oixirns  in  tlie  parallel  passage  in  Lnke  (xvi.  13)  under  a 
different  connection. 


40 


The  Belations  of  the  Kingdom. 


PART  I. 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


tHngs  at  the  same  moment.  Sucli  a  physical 
obstacle  might  scarcely  hold  in  the  spiritual  ser- 
vice of  the  Christian's  will.  There  is  a  deeper 
moral  obstacle  on  which  Jesus  fastens  our  atten- 
tion. Man's  moral  service  does  not  rest,  like  a 
slave's,  on  compulsion,  but  on  choice.  It  is  de- 
termined by  the  likings  of  the  man.  And  where 
two  rival  moral  masters  are  issuing  contrary  be- 
hests, it  is  simply  out  of  the  question  that  his  own 
inclination  should  fall  in  with  the  will  of  both. 
He  must  either  like  what  A  prescribes,  and  in 
that  event  he  will  hate  B  for  prescribing  the 
opposite  ;  or  else,  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  cleave 
by  preference  to  the  orders  of  B,  he  must  practi- 
cally despise  or  set  aside  the  authority  of  A.^ 

Thus,  then,  the  case  stands  with  a  christian 
disciple  who  is  falling  under  the  sway  of  covet- 
ousness.  He  must  in  the  end  renounce  entirely 
the  service  of  God,  and  become  in  soul  and  will 
the  very  bond-slave  of  money.  By  choosing  here 
an  unusual  Chaldee  word  for  wealth,  Jesus  has 
marked  a  little  more  firmly  His  personification  of 
all  worldly  property  as  wielding  a  power  over 
men  antagonistic  to  the  authority  of  God  Him- 


^  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  following  (with  Alford,  in  loc. ) 
Meyer's  ingenious  and  simple  way  of  representing  the  dual  alter- 
native of  V.  24  by  letters.     See  his  Commentary. 


WARNING. 


Against  Covetousness.  41 

self.  But  so  bold  a  personification  can  mislead 
no  one.  That  money  is  a  hard  master  has  been  first 
the  testimony  of  multitudes,  who,  after  slaving  all 
their  days  to  get  it,  cursed  it  at  last  in  the  bitter- 
ness of  death  for  a  worthless  cheat.  But  money 
has  no  mastership  save  over  him  who  loves  it. 
It  sways  men  by  their  hearts.  It  comes  at  last, 
if  you  will  let  it,  not  simply  to  divide  your  alle- 
giance with  God  Himself,  but  to  detach  you  from 
God's  household  altogether,  and  reduce  you  to  a 
slavery  which  degrades  you.  Such  abject  slavery 
to  gold,  however,  is  the  miserable  issue  of  a  down- 
ward progress.  It  began  when  the  man  began  Ver.  19. 
to  heap  up  for  himself  treasures  upon  earth.  It 
laid  the  foundation  of  its  power,  when  it  seduced  ^er.  21. 
the  man's  heart,  and  drew  down  his  love  from 
heaven  to  earth.  It  has  detached  him  from  its 
heavenly  rival  and  secured  him  for  its  own,  by 
putting  out  his  eyes  that  he  should  no  longer  see  Ver.  22. 
the  better  wealth  of  eternity.  And  now,  it  alone 
fiUs  his  narrowed  vision ;  it  alone  is  loved  by  his 
earthly  heart ;  and  because  gold  he  will  have,  and 
gold  he  takes  joy  in,  therefore  is  he  become  a 
willing  servant  to  his  own  covetousness,  a  wor- 
shipper and  a  slave  of  mammon. 

Let  no  one  ask  how  that  can  be  called  bondage 
which  a  man  does  because  he  likes  to  do  it.    For 


42 


The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 


FIRST 
WARNING. 


Lovelace : 
From  Pinson. 


it  is  precisely  here,  in  the  fettering  of  any  one's 
heart  to  a  base  or  insufficient  thing,  in  the  subju- 
gation of  his  higher  nobler  self,  his  reason,  his 
conscience,  and  his  love,  to  something  which  was 
made  to  be  his  servant,  not  his  master,  that  moral 
slavery,  the  only  slavery  which  reaches  or  de- 
grades the  man  himself,  must  be  sought  for. 

*  Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make, 
Nor  iron  bars  a  cacre  : ' 


as  little  can  the  manacle  on  the  wrist  or  the  lash 
on  the  shoulder  make  a  slave.  But  when  a  man's 
own  pride  sways  him  against  his  reason,  or  lust 
proves  stronger  than  temperate  resolution,  or  the 
foolish  longing  to  be  soon  rich  drags  a  soul  after 
Cf.  1  Tim.  vi.  9.  it  to  perdition,  in  defiance  of  wisdom  and  of  piety ; 
then  it  is  the  very  man  himself  who  is  yoked  to 
the  car  of  his  own  vices,  and  taken  captive  in  a 
most  base,  because  a  willing  captivity.  '  Every 
one  that  doeth  sin  is  a  slave  of  the  sin.'  And 
the  test  of  such  slavery  lies  in  this,  that  he  is  no 
longer  able  to  do  the  will  of  God.  Against  the 
structure  of  their  own  moral  nature,  people  are 
continually  flattering  themselves  that  it  is  pos- 
sible to  live  in  a  divided  allegiance.  It  is  possible, 
to  be  sure,  that  for  a  moment  of  indecision,  while 
two  opposite  impulses  stand  in  conflict,  a  man 
may  hover  betwixt  the  two.     But  no  man  can 


John  viii.  31, 
Greek. 


Against  Covetousness.  43 

live  so.     His  own  choice  decides  his  service.    He      part  i. 
gives  himself  to  the  work  which  he  likes  best.       first 

TT  •  T   '  If  WARNINI 

He  cannot  do  that,  and  also  give  himseli  to  oppo- 
site work  which  he  likes  less.  Still  less  can  he 
continue  to  do  that,  and  yet  retain  the  power  of 
giving  himself  to  its  opposite.  It  is  not  the  will 
only,  but  the  whole  nature  of  a  man,  from  the  heart 
outwards,  which  gets  so  wedded  to  the  service  to 
which  he  has  once  devoted  his  strength,  that  it 
comes  to  be  in  the  long-run  a  thing  inconceivable 
by  him,  and  utterly  unattainable,  that  he  should 
transfer  to  any  novel  master  the  settled  labour  of 
his  life. 

This  is  the  abyss  to  w^hich  Jesus  points  His 
followers,  that  they  may  shun  the  beginnings  of 
the  incline.  In  this  world  His  kingdom  must 
be  ;  and  by  the  gains  of  this  world  His  servants 
must  live  ;  and  the  hand  of  diligent  Christians  Prov.  x.  4. 
wiU  make  rich.  But  in  such  incessant  contact 
with  wealth  and  acquisition  of  it,  the  eye  of  our 
King  foresaw  an  incessant  peril.  How  serious 
that  peril  proved  to  be  to  the  Church  after  she 
outgrew  persecution,  and  began  to  suck  the  wealth 
of  kingdoms,  may  be  read  in  a  whole  millennium 
of  Western  Church  history.  How  great  it  has 
always  proved  to  the  individual  Christian,  may 


44  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.  be  seen  on  every  hand  of  us  at  this  hour.  There 
FIRST  is  no  safeguard  but  to  follow  with  fearful  and 
averted  faces  the  warning  of  our  King  :  '  Lay- 
not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth.'  All 
needless  superfluous  storing — storing  for  vanity, 
not  for  prudence,  for  delight,  not  for  use  —  is 
pregnant  with  spiritual  danger.  Scatter  your 
Luke  xvi.  9.  treasures  rather ;  buy  heavenly  friends  with 
earthly  mammon  ;  sell  and  give  alms  ;  for  though 
the  little  heap  may  be  but  small,  experience  warns 
us  that  it  can  steal  the  heart.  And  when  a  heart 
which  ought  to  have  its  eye  on  God,  its  home 
above,  its  wealth  in  eternity,  has  been  allured  to 
settle  on  its  heap  of  gold,  alas  for  the  bhnding 
of  the  eyes  and  the  enslaving  of  the  will !  How 
great  is  that  darkness  !  How  hopeless  that  cap- 
tivity ! 


AGAINST      ANXIETY. 


46 


Therefore  1  say  unto  you,  Take  no  thought  for  your  life, 
what  ye  shall  eat,  or  what  ye  shall  drink :  nor  yet  for  your  body, 
what  ye  shall  put  on.  Is  not  the  life  more  than  meat,  and  the 
body  than  raiment?  Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air:  for  they 
sow  not,  neither  do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into  barns ;  yet  your 
heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Are  ye  not  much  better  than 
they?  Which  of  you,  by  taking  thought,  can  add  one  cubit  to 
his  stature  ?  And  why  take  ye  thought  for  raiment  ?  Consider 
the  lilies  of  the  field,  how  they  grow ;  they  toil  not,  neither  do 
they  spin :  and  yet  I  say  unto  you.  That  even  Solomon,  in  all 
his  glory,  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these.  Wherefore,  if  God 
so  clothe  the  grass  of  the  f  eld,  which  to-day  is,  and  to-morrow 
is  cast  into  the  oven,  shall  He  not  much  more  clothe  you,  0  ye 
of  little  faith  ?  Therefore  take  no  thought,  saying,  '  What 
shall  we  eat  f  or,  '  What  shall  we  drink  f  or,  '  Wherewithal 
shall  we  be  clothed  f  For  after  all  these  things  do  the  Gentiles 
seek:  for  your  heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of 
all  these  things.  But  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness ;  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you. 
Take  therefore  no  thought  for  the  morrow;  for  the  morrow  shall 
take  thought  for  the  things  of  itself.  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is 
the  evil  thereof — Matt.  vi.  25-34 ;  cf.  Luke  xii.  22-32. 


46 


WAEyi>'G. 


AGAINST    ANXIETY. 

COYETOUSNESS  is  the  temptation  which  lies  pa_et  i. 
nearest  to  persons  whose  worldly  fortune  second 
is  sufficient  for  their  need,  and  beHeved  to  be  safe 
or  assured ;  anxiety,  that  which  besets  all  those 
whose  means  are  either  uncertain  or  insufficient. 
This  division  does  not  exactly  coincide  either 
with  that  between  wealth  and  poverty,  as  we 
commonly  use  these  terms,  or  with  the  distinc- 
tion between  a  narrow  and  an  easy  income :  for 
in  the  humbler  classes  of  society,  a  man  in  good 
health  may  be  sufficiently  raised  above  fear  of 
want  to  stand  in  gjreater  dancrer  of  makinc;  even 

o  o  o 

his  slender  gains  a  treasure,  than  of  any  anxiety 
about  his  future ;  whereas  there  are  plenty  of 
opulent  business  men  whose  capital,  ample  as  it 
is,  is  exposed  to  such  incessant  hazard  through 
the  speculations  of  trade,  that  so  far  from  resting 
in  the  joy  of  possession,  they  live  unhappy  days 
through  the  apprehension  of  loss.  To  be  raised 
above  this  new  foe — anxiety — one's  income  must 
in  the  first  place  be  at  least  adequate  to  meet 

47 


48 


The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 


PART  I. 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


Atra  cur  a: 
Horace. 


without  strain  that  expenditure,  be  it  great  or 
little,  which  has  become  necessary  to  one's  happi- 
ness ;  and  in  the  next  place,  there  must  be  a  fair 
prospect  that  it  will  continue  to  meet  it.  It  does 
not  depend  on  the  amount  a  man  has,  but  on  the 
proportion  between  what  he  has  and  what  he 
desires  to  spend,  together  with  the  security  with 
which  he  believes  he  may  count  upon  a  similar 
proportion  in  the  future.  When,  therefore,  we 
have  discounted  all  persons  in  any  position  of  life 
who  are  reasonably  assured  of  continuing  to  have 
enough  for  their  requirements,  we  shall  find  that 
we  have  set  aside  only  the  fortunate  and  envied 
few,  and  that  we  have  still  to  reckon  with  the 
vast  bulk  of  mankind,  rich  or  poor,  on  whom  sits 
a  dismal  comrade,  a  black  shadow,  whose  name 
is  Care. 

It  is  true  indeed  that  covetousness  itself,  even 
before  it  has  reached  its  full  limit  and  become 
the  confirmed  moral  disease  which  we  term 
avarice,  is  a  prolific  mother  of  cares.  Wealth 
has  its  anxieties  as  well  as  poverty;  and  the 
cares  of  the  wealthy  are  far  less  excusable  than 
those  of  the  poor.  There  even  comes  a  point  in 
the  growth  of  a  soul's  bondage  to  money  at  which 
its  delight  in  what  it  possesses  becomes  feebler 
than  the  torturing  fear  of  losing  it;  and   then 


Against  Anxiety. 


49 


PART  I. 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


ensues  the  shocking  spectacle,  so  often  pictured 
by  the  moralist  and  the  literary  artist,  of  a  human 
being  consumed  with  the  incessant  alarms  and  the 
sordid  anxieties  of  penury  in  the  very  midst  of 
unused  money-bags.  But  this  appears  to  me  to 
be  only  a  vivid,  because  an  extreme,  illustration  of 
the  profound  spiritual  afiinity  which  subsists  be- 
twixt these  two  sore  abuses  of  worldly  substance. 
Though  contrasted  in  their  surface  manifestations 
and  besetting  opposite  social  classes,  these  two — 
idolatrous  delight  in  possession,  and  faitliless  fear 
for  want — are  yet  at  bottom  kindred  vices.  Trace 
them  to  their  root ;  and  you  find  that  they  spring 
from  the  same  religious  apostasy, — a  preference 
of  the  earthly  before  the  spiritual,  of  what  this 
life  can  give  before  the  rewards  of  our  heavenly 
Father.  Indeed,  I  take  it  to  be  a  note,  pointing 
us  to  this  inner  kinship  betwixt  the  two,  when 
our  Lord  passes  from  the  first  of  them  to  the 
second  with  the  word  '  Therefore.'-^     Because  the  Si^i  «:Ta,  ver. 

25. 

diversion  of  one's  supreme  affection  from  celestial 
and  future  rewards  to  settle  on  the  treasures  of 
earth,  leads  to  such  disastrous  spiritual  results  as 
blindness  to  the  divine  and  slavery  to  mammon,  cf.  vers.  21-21 


1  The  parallel  passage  in  St.  Luke  (xii.  22-32)  actually  occurs 
in  connection  with  a  warning,  not  against  anxiety,  but  against 
'  covetousness. '     Cf.  ver.  15  of  that  chapter. 
D 


50 


The  delations  of  the  Kingdom. 


PART  I. 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


'  therefore '  avoid  it  in  every  shape ;  not  only  in 
that  shape  of  covetous  idolatry  which  leads  men 
to  amass  wealth  and  delight  themselves  in  its 
possession,  but  not  less  also  in  that  still  more 
frequent  shape  of  carking  care  which  frets  one's 
days  by  a  disquieting  apprehension  of  want.  For 
this,  too,  is  a  sort  of  bondage  to  money ;  this,  too, 
shows  that  the  eye  for  divine  things  has  been 
darkened ;  this,  not  less  than  the  other,  springs 
from,  and  in  its  turn  confirms,  the  degradation 
of  the  heart  to  rest  upon  treasures  that  are 
perishable. 

The  whole  force,  then,  of  such  considerations 
as  Jesus  has  already  urged  in  support  of  His 
first  admonition  to  '  treasure  no  treasures,'  is 
transferred  by  this  connecting  word  'therefore,' 
to  enforce  His  second  admonition  as  well :  '  Take 
no  anxious  thought.'  At  the  same  time,  every 
one  must  be  struck  by  the  different  tone  which 
marks  His  address  to  the  anxious-minded.  What 
He  says  to  them,  indeed,  is  not  less  urgent,  or 
insistant,  than  what  has  been  said  to  the  covet- 
ous ;  yet  it  is  mixed  with  a  certain  unmistake- 
able  gentleness,  and  passes  almost  insensibly  from 
expostulation  into  words  of  comfort.  To  the  rich, 
who  prided  themselves  on  riches  and  were  greedy 
for  more,  Jesus  spoke  with  a  severity  which,  in 


Against  Anxiety. 


51 


WARNING. 


its  hard  exposure  of  gold's  darkening  and  enslav-  part  i. 
ing  influence,  bordered  upon  threatening.  To  the 
poor  who  toil  for  to-day's  bread,  and  are  fearful 
of  to-morrow's  hunger,  He  speaks  with  a  kindli- 
ness which  does  not  border  upon  promising,  but 
abounds  in  it.  He  bids  them  be  confident ;  He 
reasons  down  their  fears ;  He  cheers  them  by  the 
liberal  bounty  of  Providence  to  flower  and  bird ; 
He  repeats  expostulations  with  a  sweet  persua- 
siveness ;  He  does  everything  to  encourage  them 
to  a  more  generous  confidence  in  their  heavenly 
Father.  There  is  good  reason  for  this.  Such 
slavery  to  the  perishing  gains  of  earth  as  grows 
out  of  one's  treasured  abundance  is  a  vice  of  the 
lofty,  the  idle,  the  prosperous,  and  the  pampered 
classes.  It  is  a  '  superfluity  of  naughtiness.'  It  Jr^s.  i.  21. 
is  bred  of  the  misdirected  pride  and  misused  de- 
lights of  mankind.  It  deserves  little  sympathy, 
and  needs  no  encouragement.  Whereas  such 
care  as  comes  to  knit  the  forehead  of  earth's 
hard-pressed  toilers  and  darken  all  their  hours 
with  fear  of  want,  is  born  of  the  feebleness  and 
joylessness  of  our  curse.  It  is  the  portion  of  the 
lowly,  the  unfortunate,  and  the  poor.  It  argues 
infirmity,  not  pride,  in  us ;  and  is  best  cured  by 
the  sympathy  of  a  Son  Who  became  poor,  and  the 
encouragements  of  a  Father  Who  cares  for  His 


52 


The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 


PAUT  T. 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


little  ones.  It  was  quite  in  tlie  temper  of  the 
older  prophets  of  His  people,  that  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  thus  changed  His  tone  to  mildness 
when  He  turned  from  the  covetous  rich  to  the 
careworn  poor  :  and  we  may  be  sure  that,  in 
this  as  in  all  things,  He  faithfully  reflected  the 
mind  of  the  Father  above.  But  from  His  lips 
such  a  change  of  tone  wore  a  special  propriety. 
Mary's  Son  was  a  poor  man  from  the  day  of  His 
birth  to  the  day  of  His  death.  The  eldest-born 
of  an  artisan's  widow,  early  experience  had  made 
Him  familiar  with  the  narrow  resources  of  poor 
people  and  their  shifty  economy,  often  on  the 
brink  of  straitness  whenever  disease  comes  to 
cripple  the  working  hand,  or  fear  of  death  is 
made  bitterer  by  the  fear  of  penury.  Since  He 
abandoned  Nazareth  for  an  itinerant  life,  He  had 
already  begun  to  taste  the  trials  of  a  still  more 
hand-to-mouth  dependence  upon  Heaven  for  daily 
bread,  and  the  emergencies  of  one  who  subsists 
upon  the  chance  offerings  of  friendship,  and  knows 
not  sometimes  where  to  lay  his  head.  Granting 
that  the  glitter  of  Judea's  crown  was  cast  once 
S;  Jo  nvi.  .  ^^  twice  across  His  path  with  sufficient  clearness 
to  make  Him  understand  what  fascination  an 
earthly  treasure  may  have  for  the  few ;  still  it 
was  out  of  a  more   habitual   fellow-feeling   He 


Cf.  Luke  viii. 
3,  ix.  58. 


Matt. 


Against  Anxiety. 


53 


could  turn  to  the  hard-worked  and  ill-paid  thou- 
sands of  His  countrymen,  and  bid  them  trust 
their  heavenly  Father  for  daily  food.  He  surely 
knows  to  this  hour  how  bitter  a  trial  it  is  for  any 
honest  labouring  man,  to  see  his  small  savings 
wear  done  while  the  hands  which  ought  to  be 
toiling  lie  white  and  wasting  on  the  coverlid ;  to 
watch  the  decent  raiment  of  wife  and  little  ones 
turn  tattered  with  no  hope  of  new,  and  the  tiny 
face  that  was  pale  before  grow  punier  and  more 
pale  day  by  day ;  to  miss  one  little  article  after 
another  from  the  room,  and  say  nothing,  but  let 
the  hidden  dread  of  destitution  gnaw  the  sick 
heart  with  silent  misery.  When  He  bids  such  a 
man  trust  God,  He  surely  means  no  mockery,  but 
effectual  help.  Jesus  of  lN"azareth  was  and  is  the 
poor  man's  best  friend  ;  nor  have  any  words  been 
ever  spoken  on  this  earth  better  suited  to  the  lot 
of  the  toiling  masses,  or  so  brimful  of  real,  wise, 
effectual  sustaining  strength  for  faint-hearted 
humanity  in  its  mean  and  e very-day  necessities, 
as  these  blessed  words  of  Jesus. 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


Let  us  first  try  to  fix  what  that  fault  precisely 
is,  which  Jesus  has  here  chidden  with  such  gentle 
urgency.  Everything  will  depend  on  the  sense 
which  we  affix  to  one  word  only  ;  for  although 


54  TJie  Belations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      our  Lord  has  repeated  His  exhortation  no  fewer 
SECOND      than  three  times,  He  has  adhered  in  every  in- 
stance to  the  use  of  the  same  verb.     The  render- 

/LC£g</Av«»,  vers. 

25,  31,  U.  ing  of  that  verb  consistently  followed  by  our 
version  is,  to  our  ears  at  least,  so  w^eak  as  really 

'Take no  to  misrepresent  the  sense.  To  'take  thought' 
°   '  about   any   matter,   means   in   ordinary   English 

little  more  than  to  exercise  one's  mind  respecting 
it,  so  as  to  do  the  best  that  can  be  done  under 
the  circumstances  to  avoid  complications  or  to 
bring  about  a  desirable  issue.  This  is  not  only  not 
what  Jesus  means  to  prohibit,  it  is  almost  exactly 
the  reverse  of  it.  For  such  calm,  judicious  exer- 
cise both  of  thought  and  of  forethought  regarding 
worldly  provision  as  will  lead  to  diligent  and  suc- 
cessful endeavours  to  secure  it,  is  not  only  a 
different  thing  from  the  state  of  anxiety  censured 
by  our  Lord,  but  is  really  inconsistent  with  it. 
In  fact,  it  is  one  of  the  minor  objections  to  over- 
anxiety,^  that  it  disturbs  the  judgment,  and  makes 
one's  endeavours  inconstant  and  ineffectual.  It 
is  really  a  foe  to  such  calm  consideration  and 
deliberate  action  as  must  always  be  the  duty  of 
an  intelligent  human  being  placed  in  a  world  of 
labour,  and  weighted  with  the  responsibility  of 

1  ^£/j/^v«v,  from  f^iftZ,'^,  implies  the  division  or  distraction  of 
the  mind  among  a  variety  of  opposite  contingencies. 


Against  Anxiety.  55 

providing  for  his  own  and  his  dependants'  sub-      part  i. 
sistence.     Even  the  word  '  care  '  (or  '  have  care/      second 

/.    T  ,N  1        •  1      •  1  WARNING. 

or  '  be  careful  ),  substituted  m  other  passages  ^.^  ^uke  x. 
where  the  same  Greek  verb  occurs  in  the  same  f  J '.,}  ^?.^-  7^- 
sense,  fails  to  express  the  thought.  To  *  care  for'  ?!^]'p"3  ^7' 
anything  is  an  ambiguous  phrase;  used  sometimes 
indeed  to  describe  a  fault,  but  sometimes  also  to 
describe  a  virtue.  We  have  no  choice  open  to 
us  better  than  to  read  it  thus  :  '  Be  not  anxious 
about  your  life.'  Though  '  anxiety'  may  in  certain 
cases  carry  no  suspicion  of  blame  with  it,  yet  by 
its  etymology^  it  always  involves  a  degree  of  con- 
cern which  is  so  overstrained  or  excessive  as  to 
have  become  painful.  The  state  of  mind  really 
described  by  our  Lord's  words  is  such  solicitude 
about  future  events  or  issues  asrainst  which  we 
have  no  resource,  as  divides  and  distracts  and 
fruitlessly  distresses  the  mind^  so  as  to  destroy 
its  peace.^  It  only  begins,  therefore,  at  the  point 
where  rational  and  dutiful  carefulness  ends.  When 
a  man,  set  in  the  thick  of  life,  with  a  crowd  of 
possibilities  swarming  about  his  path,  any  one  of 
which  might,  if  it  became  actual,  ruin  his  fortune 
or  starve  his  family,  can  keep  his  head  cool  enough 

^  From  Latin  angere.  Cf.  anguish,  and  the  same  root  in 
Germ.  Eng.,  etc. 

2  fiipt/:/.vxi>  est  ita  curare  ut  sollicitus  sis  ne  res  defutura  sit  in 
tempore.     Tittmann,  de  Synonymis,  p.  137. 


5  6  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.       to  think  out,  and  his  hand  steady  enough  to  work 
SECOND      through,  whatever  it  lies  in  his  power,  guided  by 

WARNING.        „  •    1         J        1  1        1  111  •  1   .    1 

loresight,  to  do  ;  he  has  reached  the  point  at  which 
his  own  duty  ends,  and  the  unknown  dispensa- 
tions of  Providence  enter.  At  that  point  reason 
and  piety  alike  enjoin  that  solicitude  should  be 
arrested,  and  that  trust  should  take  its  place. 
Eeason  condemns  further  solicitude  regarding  that 
which  no  thoughtfulness  or  care  of  ours  can  affect, 
as  useless  ;  piety  rebukes  it  as  distrustful.  The 
reward  which  is  to  crown  human  industry  or  fore- 
thought is  to  be  of  God's  bestowing ;  the  inci- 
dence upon  individual  history  of  those  numberless 
events  which  men  call  accidental,  because  they 
cannot  forecast  them,  must  lie  in  God's  hand  ;  the 
region  of  the  future,  like  that  of  the  unknown, 
is  His  ;  and  the  office  of  an  intelligent  faith  is 
humbly  to  wait  on  Him  for  the  fruits  of  past 
labour  and  the  falling  out  of  our  lot. 

It  is  distrust  of  God,  therefore,  which  lies  at 
the  root  of  unlawful  anxiety.  A  feeble  appre- 
hension of  God,  as  the  Agent  Who  overrules 
everything,  and  determines  those  causes  which 
lie  outside  of  our  reach  and  those  events  wliich 
escape  our  foresight ;  this  it  is  which  shakes  the 
soul  with  vague  uncertainty,  and  fills  with  cause- 
less alarms  the  darkness  of  to-morrow.    The  doubt 


Against  Anxiety.  57 

whether  God,  Who  counts  for  so  much  in  the  con-      part  i. 
tincrencies  of  life,  be  One  Whose  attitude  to  us      second 

.    .  WARNING. 

may  be  wholly  trusted,  or  the  suspicion  that  we 
may  have  really  as  much  to  dread  as  to  hope  for 
from  His  superintendence  ;  this  it  is  which  can- 
not but  unsettle  a  man's  stedfast  outlook  into  the 
coming  days,  and  toss  his  spirit  to  and  fro  in  the 
restlessness  of  distraction.  Because  we  are  '  of 
little  faith,'  therefore  are  we  not  content  to  plan  Yer.  30. 
and  work,  and  having  planned  and  wrought,  to 
sit  and  wait ;  but  must  fidget  ourselves  about  that 
which  may  be,  until  impatience  gnaws  us  like  a 
worm,  and  our  imagination,  picturing  disasters  in 
the  dark,  burns  us  like  fire.  Why  is  it  that 
popular  proverbs  attest  how  much  worse  are 
fancied  ills  than  real  ones,  and  how  the  evils 
which  we  most  dread  never  overtake  us  ;  but  just 
because  this  distrustful  human  heart  of  ours  is  so 
prone  to  prophesy,  and  so  lively  to  exaggerate, 
misfortune  ?  Like  a  soothing,  cooling  breath  from 
a  serener  world,  there  comes  down  upon  the 
feverish,  self-tormenting  spirits  of  men  this  word 
of  One  Who  was  the  messenger  of  Him  Whom 
we  distrust :  '  Be  not  anxious  about  your  life  : 
be  not  anxious  about  to-morrow  ! ' 

Distrustful    anxiety,    in    the    sense    now   ex- 
plained, is  far  from  being  confined  to  any  single 


58  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.  set  of  human  circumstances.  Just  as  the  human 
SECOND  heart  may  make  a  treasure  to  itself  of  any  precious 
thing  as  well  as  oi  money,  so  men  may  indulge 
a  sinful  solicitude  respecting  any  other  appre- 
hended calamity  as  well  as  destitution.  Again, 
therefore,  the  spirit  of  our  Lord's  w^ords  goes  far 
beyond  their  immediate  and  literal  scope'.  A  timid 
or  desponding  nature  is  constitutionally  prone  to 
expect  the  worst ;  it  peoples  to-morrow  with  its 
fears,  and  lives  under  the  shadow  of  what  may 
never  be ;  while  just  in  proportion  as  our  love' 
has  learned  to  prize  and  live  upon  any  treasured 
possession,  will  its  instinct  be  quick  to  divine  the 
approach  of  that  which  threatens  to  rob  us  of  it. 
What  is  so  jealous  of  loss  as  love  ?  or  seems  to 
itself  to  stand  more  continually  in  jeopardy  ?  But 
just  as,  in  the  preceding  half  of  this  paragraph, 
superfluous  riches  stood  for  all  such  objects  of 
delight  rather  than  of  need  as  men  are  ready  to 
store  up  for  their  pride  ;  so  here  the  simplest 
provision  for  bodily  wants  is  put  for  whatever 
men  conceive  to  be  indispensable  to  life, — that  is 
to  say,  for  whatever  ministers,  not  to  superfluous 
delight,  but  to  absolute  necessity.  The  '  life '  for 
which  Jesus  entreats  us  to  take  no  anxious  thought, 
is  that  life  whose  primary  requirements  are  food 
and  raiment ;  not  as  if  the  most  elementary  con- 


Against  Anxiety.  59 

ception  of  our  physical  and  social  existence  in  a      part  i. 
civilised   state   did   not   include  a  multitude  of      second 

,       .  -,  -,•/>.  •.  •      T  WAENING. 

other  desiderata,  nearly,  it  not  quite,  as  indispens- 
able as  even  these ;  but  only  because  in  these  you 
have  the  earliest  and  typical  examples  of  what 
earth  must  yield  to  man,  if  his  life  on  earth  is  to 
be   maintained.     With   that   large   class  of  our 
fellow-creatures  to  whom  life  has  become  in  the 
strictest  sense  a  struggle  for  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence, the  questions  which  before  every  other 
press  for  instant  reply  are  just  such  questions  as 
Jesus  has  here  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  anxious  : 
*  What  shall  we  eat  ?  what  shall  we  drink  ?  where-  Cf.  /*£?/A/.*««f 
withal  shall  we  be  clothed  ? '     And  however  far  Luke  xxi.  34. 
we  may  be  placed  above  the  risk  of  literal  star- 
vation, we  shall  hardly  be  able   to  excuse  our 
excessive  apprehensions  for  the  future,  unless  we 
can  plead  that  the  things  we  fear  to  be  deprived 
of  deserve  to  be  ranked  by  us  in  the  same  im- 
perative category  with  meat  and  drink  and  rai- 
ment.    It  is  true  that  there  are  other  necessities 
which  do  deserve  to  be  ranked  with  these — ne- 
cessities not  all  of  them  of  a  material  kind.    Even 
as  an  earthly  creature,  '  man  doth  not  live  by  Deut.  viii  3, 
bread  only.'     The  deeper  hunger  of  the  intellect  iv.  4. 
for  knowledge  may  crave  as  imperiously  as  the  ^-f;  ^^^^  ^^• 
bodily  appetite.     Strip  a  human  soul  of  all  re- 


WARNING. 


6  0  Tlie  BelaMons  of  the  Kingdom. 

spectful  or  compassionate  fellowship  from  his 
SECOND  fellows,  and  you  leave  him  to  the  stony  loveless 
stare  of  society  and  the  inclemencies  of  fortune, 
in  a  nakedness  more  to  be  pitied  than  that  of  the 
body.  To  be  threatened  with  such  loss  as  that 
s  literally  to  be  in  anxiety  for  one's  life,  even 
though  bread  and  water  may  not  fail.  But  surely 
it  were  quite  enough  to  put  to  shame  the  myriad 
ignoble  and  paltry  anxieties  with  which  our  easy 
lives  are  daily  vexed,  to  ask  :  Are  these,  then, 
matters  of  so  great  moment  to  our  '  life,'  that  to 
want  them,  though  we  should  want  them  for  ever, 
would  be  to  us  like  the  extremity  of  hunger  or 
the  shame  of  nakedness  ? 

Our  Lord  has  been  careful  to  enforce  His 
warning  against  anxiety  about  the  means  of 
living  by  a  variety  of  arguments,  partly  ad- 
dressed to  reason  and  partly  to  piety :  drawn, 
too,  in  part  from  the  lessons  of  nature,  and  in  part 
from  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  whole  pas- 
sage thus  becomes  a  precious  specimen  of  the 
harmony  which  unites  the  teachings  of  God  in 
His  natural  creation  with  those  of  His  christian 
revelation;  a  specimen  the  more  precious,  that  it 
comes  from  His  lips  Who  is  the  Author  of  both. 
This  speaker  Who  finds  in  God's  natural  provi- 


Against  Anxiety.  61 

dence  the  same  lesson  which  Christians  have  more      part  r. 
plainly    learnt    through    the    revelation    of    our      second 
Father  s  grace,  is  that  very  Word,  or  expression 
of  the  Godhead,  by  Whom  in  the  beoinnino^  all  Joim  i.  1-3 ; 

XT    v.,      '      O     O 

things  were  made,  and  by  Whom  also  in  the  end 
of  the  world  we  have  been  given  to  know  the 
Father.  Of  nature  He  speaks  as  its  Framer ;  of 
the  gospel  as  its  Eevealer :  and  the  one  mighty 
lesson — cure  for  all  sordid  cares — in  which  He 
finds  the  voices  of  nature  and  revelation  to  unite, 
is  that  God's  providence  on  man's  behalf  is  abso- 
lutely to  be  trusted.  In  nature  it  is  God  as  our 
Maker  Whom  we  come  to  know,  and  what  as  our 
Maker  He  may  be  expected  to  do  for  such  crea- 
tures as  we  are.  In  the  gospel  kingdom,  we 
find  God  to  be  more  than  Maker,  a  Father  in 
heaven ;  and  receive  a  measure  by  which  to  esti- 
mate how  much  as  a  Father  He  is  likely  to  do 
for  His  children.  But  the  two  discoveries  coin- 
cide. The  Framer  of  nature  is  'a  faithful  Creator,'  cf.  i  Pet.  iv. 
into  Whose  hands  His  human  creatures  may  safely  hartiiTdoubre 
'  commit  the  keeping  of  their  lives  '  in  well-doing.  or^'Tives.'^^^  ^ 
The  Eevealer  of  the  gospel  is  a  tender  Father, 
Who,  not  having  'spared  His  Son'  for  us,  '  wiU 
with  Him  also  freely  give  us  all  things.'  The  Eom.  viii.  32. 
meeting-point  of  the  two  teachings  lies  in  the 
personal  trustworthiness  of  God  as  the  provider 


6  2  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      for  man's  life.     As  the  cure  for  covetousness  was 
SECOND      found  in  an  eager  and  satisfying  delight  in  God 

WARNING.  _  -  T        T         -,. 

as  the  present  treasure  of  our  souls,  leading  to  a 
hopeful  anticipation  of  His  rewards  in  the  remoter 
and  eternal  future ;  so  the  cure  for  anxiety  is 
found  in  a  childlike  confidence  upon  God  as  the 
author  and  maintainer  of  our  life,  leading  to  a 
most  restful  expectation  that  He  will  provide  for 
us  in  the  near  and  earthly  to-morrow.     We  have 

er.  30.  seen  that  the  parent  of  all  culpable  anxiety  about 

the  future  is  named '  Little-faith.'  It  is  eminently 
a  heathenish  sin,  of  which  christian  people  ought 

er.  32.  to  be  ashamed  ;  although  even  the  heathen  might 

learn  enough  from  the  fowls  of  the  air  and  the 
flowers  of  the  field  to  save  them  from  seeking 
after  their  daily  bread  under  the  burden  of  a 
painful  fear  lest  they  should  never  find  it,  as 
though  they  had  been  sent  into  this  world  like 
uncared-for  foundlings,  or  the  step-children  of 
niggardly  and  partial  Nature.  Heaven's  bounty 
to  the  meanest  thing  that  lives  rebukes  the  dis- 
trust even  of  the  pagan.  How  much  greater  cause 
have  we,  who  know  ourselves  to  be  in  the  king- 
dom of  our  heavenly  Father,  to  leave  on  His 
charge,  with  a  generous  abandonment,  the  care  of 
OUT  bodily  requirements,  while  we  devote  our- 

er.  33.  selves  with  supreme  concern  to  the  accomplish- 


Against  Anxiety.  63 

ment  of  His  will,  and  the  practical  establishment      part  i. 
of  His  sovereignty  !  second 

WARNING. 

I.  The  first  class  of  dissuasives  from  anxiety 
are  those  which  are  drawn  from  reason  and  the 
natural  dealings  of  God  with  His  creation. 

(1.)  Of  these  the  first  is  given  in  these  words : 
'  Is  not  the  life  more  than  meat,  and  the  body  Yer.  25. 
than  raiment  V  It  is  an  argument  from  the 
greater  to  the  less ;  from  the  end  to  the  means 
for  that  end.  Food  and  raiment  are  not  ends  in 
themselves  ;  they  become  needful  to  man  only  for 
the  sake  of  that  physical  life  which,  if  imfed, 
must  cease,  and  that  material  body  whose  natural 
condition  is  one  of  imperfect  protection.  But 
this  body,  made  so  wonderfully,  yet  left  so  unde- 
fended, and  this  life  that  cannot  live  without 
assistance  from  the  vegetable  and  animal  creation, 
are  not  of  our  own  making  or  getting.  They  are 
God's  unsolicited  gifts,  wrought  by  His  skilful 
workmanship,  and  quickened,  no  man  can  discover  cf.  Ps 
how,  by  the  secret  might  of  His  wiU.  The  author 
of  so  strange  and  precious  a  piece  of  mechanism 
as  this  living  body  may  be  trusted  to  care  for  His 
own  handiwork.  Since  He  must  mean  that  the 
covering  which  He  has  denied  to  it  by  nature 
shall  be  supplied  by  human  art.  He  will  not  with- 


CXXXIX. 

14-16. 


WARNING. 


64  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

hold  the  material  for  garments,  nor  fail  to  bless 
SECOND  the  spinner  and  the  weaver.  If  it  is  by  bread 
we  are  to  sustain  life,  then  He  Who  gave  the  life 
will  help  us  to  sow  the  seed  and  reap  the  grain. 
It  cannot  be  the  purpose  of  our  Maker  that  His 
pains  in  making  us  what  we  are  should  fail  of 
their  design  through  want  of  such  minor  aids  and 
ministers  to  existence  as  our  state  requires.  To 
feed  and  clothe,  is  a  less  thing  than  to  make,  a 
human  being.  On  our  side,  therefore,  our  de- 
pendence on  God  for  existence  warrants  our 
trusting  Him  for  subsistence ;  since,  on  God's 
part,  His  having  cared  to  create  us  at  all  is  a 
pledge  that  He  will  take  care  to  provide  for  us. 
To  reason  thus  concerning  God,  is  to  take  for 
gTanted  that  the  analogy  of  human  action  is  in 
such  a  case  a  safe  guide  to  the  discovery  of  the 
divine.  It  proceeds  on  the  assumption  that,  as 
men,  if  they  are  wise,  will  not  do  a  great  deal  for 
any  end,  and  then  refuse  to  do  the  little  more 
which  that  end  requires,  so  neither  will  He  Who 
made  men.  Jesus  not  only  confirms  such  rea- 
soning as  just,  but  implies  that  reasoning  like  this 
ought  always  to  have  saved  the  multitude  of  the 
poor  from  distrustful  solicitude  about  the  means 
of  living. 

(2.)  Such  an  a  priori  inference,  our  Lord  argues 


Against  Anxiety. 


65 


in  the  second  place,  is  very  abundantly  confirmed 
by  our  observation  of  inferior  nature.  What  we 
may  conclude  beforehand  that  it  would  be  reason- 
able in  our  Maker  to  do  for  us,  is  just  what  we 
find  Him  doing  for  other  creatures.  Man  is  part 
of  a  larger  whole ;  a  fellow-denizen  of  this  fair 
earth  with  a  multitude  of  less  noble  inhabit- 
ants. His  physical  frame,  which  needs  to  be 
fed  and  clothed,  is  precisely  that  which  links  him 
so  closely  to  the  rest  of  the  material  creation,  as 
to  make  him,  though  its  ruling  member,  yet  a 
true  member  of  it,  subject,  like  other  organisms, 
to  its  laws  of  growth,  support,  and  decay.  He 
Who  made  man  a  material  creature,  in  need  of 
nutriment  for  his  life  and  decorous  covering  for 
his  body,  made  also  those  other  organized  crea- 
tures with  which  he  shares  such  mean  necessities 
in  common.  If  they,  acting  after  their  kind,  are 
neither  abandoned  nor  neglected  by  their  Maker, 
why  should  he  alone  be  suffered  to  want  ?  Nay, 
far  less  will  he  be  suffered.  By  how  much  man 
excels  other  animals  through  the  higher  develop- 
ment of  his  nature  and  the  dignity  of  his  station 
upon  earth,  above  all  by  that  distinguishing  image 
of  his  Creator  which  links  him  to  the  spiritual 
and  divine ;  by  so  much  the  rather  is  it  to  be 
presumed  that  God,  Who  leaves  no  humbler  thing 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


6  6  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      untended,  will  care  for  His  princely  and  surpass- 
sEcoND      ing  creature,  on  whose  head  there  rests  the  crown 

WARNING.        ^  ,  ,    .  ,  , . 

Cf.  Ps.  viii.      0^  terrestrial  creation. 

This  mode  of  reasoning  is  put  with  homely 

Ver.  26.  concretcness.     A  teacher  sitting  out  of  doors  in 

Palestine  in  a  populous  neighbourhood,  would 
seldom  be  able  to  point  to  any  undomesticated 
animals  within  sight,  except  birds ;  and  of  course 
domesticated  animals,  for  which  man  provides, 
could  not  be  so  fitly  adduced  in  proof  of  God's 
direct  care  for  His  creatures.  But  of  '  fowls  of 
the  air '  there  could  never  be  any  lack.     Not  to 

Luke  xii.  24.  speak  of  the  raven,  which,  on  a  parallel  occa- 
sion in  St.  Luke,  our  Lord  specially  named,  it  is 
well  known  that  flocks  of  pigeons,  field-sparrows, 
and  other  small  birds  are  everywhere  to  be  found 
in  Palestine,  to-day,  as  well  as  in  Bible  times. 
To  these  light  wanderers  of  the  air,  therefore,  as 
they  flew  past  on  careless  wing  in  search  of  food, 
Jesus  directed  His  audience  with  peculiar  felicity. 
These  offered  the  best  example  of  a  creature  for 
whose  wants  man  does  not  care,  and  which  no 
instinct  of  its  own  teaches  to  lay  up  any  store, 
which  lives  in-  fact  from  day  to  day  on  the  casual 
bounty  of  nature,  yet  lives  of  all  creatures  the 
freest  and  lightest-hearted  life.  The  swallow 
chatters  on  the  wing  while  it  chases  its  food,  as 


Against  Anxiety.  67 

though  it  were  to  be  always  summer.     The  lark      part  i. 
shakes  rapture  from  his  throat  in  such  abandon-      second 
ment  of  glee,  as  if  men  beneath  were  never  full  of 
care.     Why  not  ?     He  Whose  eye  rests  on  their 
lowly  loves,  forages  for  their  frugal  meal.     Sum- 
mer by  summer,  God  hangs  on  every  hedgerow  and 
wild  bramble  bush  an  ample  store  of  berries  by 
which,  through  severe  dead  months,  the  field-birds 
are  to  be  kept  from  starving.    Autumn  by  autumn, 
He  sends  them  to  glean  the  leavings  of  man's 
harvest-field.     No  sowing  or  reaping  has  He  asked 
from  them ;  not  even  such  garnering  as  He  has 
taught  to  the  squirrel  and  the  ant ;  but  will  keep 
them  in  close  dependence  on  the  provision  of  His 
own  hand,  set  forth  on  His  large  earth-table,  ready 
for  their  picking.     That  which  He  giveth  them,  Ps.  civ.  28. 
they  gather.     The  gathering  of  it,  as  they  need  it, 
is  all  that  is  in  their  care  ;  except,  indeed,  the  glad 
song  of  thanks  which  the  full  heart  of  the  little 
creature  trills  on  the  spray  when  the  meal  is  done. 
These  field-birds  are  but  specimens  indeed,  but 
they  are  very  near  and  touching  and  vocal  speci- 
mens, of  that  wide   family  of  unlabouring  and 
careless  creatures,  which  in  earth  and  sky  and  Said  of  the 
sea    '  seeks '    everywhere   '  its   meat  from   God.'  Ps!^fv/2r  ^ 
When  one  comes  to  think  of  it,  it  seems  surpris-  ravens  in  Job 
ing  how  rarely,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  any  ^^^^^^^^    • 


6  8  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.       of  the  wilder  beasts  are  found  to  starve.     Earth 
SECOND      is  full  of  competing  life ;  and  the  history  of  the 

WARNING.  .  1  1   .    1  11  1 

animals  which  crowd  and  swarm  and  prey  upon 
each  other  is  but  a  '  struggle  for  existence.'  Yet, 
under  the  adjustments  of  divine  law,  that  which 
they  seek,  they  do  for  the  most  part  find ;  and 
live  out  their  appointed  time,  careless  of  to-morrow, 
yet  secure  of  food  for  to-morrow's  hunger.  The 
meanest  servant  in  our  Father's  house  has  '  bread 
enough  and  to  spare.'  '  Are  ye  not  much  better 
than  they  V 

'And  why  take  ye  thought  for  raiment  ?'  If 
it  was  in  the  time  of  spring  that  our  Lord  dis- 
coursed this  Sermon,  the  fields  around  Him  would 
be  gay  with  the  numerous  wild-flowers  of  Syria, 
and  the  hill-side  grass  on  which  His  hearers 
reclined  might  offer  to  His  hand  the  lesson  of  the 
lilies.  Science  has  failed  as  yet  to  fix  for  us  the 
exact  species  of  lily  to  which  Jesus  pointed  as 
more  gorgeous  than  an  oriental  monarch's  robe  ;^ 

^  The  reign  of  Solomon  was  in  all  outward  prosperity  by  far 
the  most  memorable  which  Hebrew  annals  could  boast.  It  was, 
in  fact,  the  only  time  at  which  the  little  Hebrew  state  could  claim 
to  be  the  centre  of  an  empire  on  the  oriental  scale  ;  and  the 
magnificence  of  that  opulent  and  splendour-loving  monarch  so 
impressed  the  national  imagination,  that  it  continued  to  stand 
for  a  type  of  all  earthly  greatness.  See  the  inspired  account  in 
2  Chron.  ix.  13-28 ;  and  compare  Rawlinson,  Anc.  Mon.  ii,  80, 
with  note,  and  Ewald,  Gesch.  d.  Volkes  Israel,  B.  iii. 


Against  Anxiety. 


69 


but  the  wild-flowering  plants  of  His  land,  like 
those  of  our  own,  are  rich  enough  in  lovely  hues 
and  tender  texture  to  furnish  us  with  more  than 
one  example  of  His  general  lesson.  They  grow  up 
among  the  lowly  pastures ;  they  hide  themselves 
beneath  the  budding  woods ;  they  mix  with  the 
neglected  spikes  of  flowering  grasses  by  the  way- 
side. To  be  trodden  under  foot,  or  cut  down  in 
a  timberless  land  for  fuel  to  feed  the  domestic 
oven,  is  their  most  frequent  fate ;  while  the  best 
fortune  they  dare  hope  for  is  only  to  be  plucked 
by  the  fickle  hand  of  childhood,  toyed  with  for 
an  hour,  then  flung  aside  for  their  too  speedy 
withering.  These  are  not  the  costly  products  of 
cultivation,  which  lend  themselves  to  deck  the 
saloons  or  share  the  revels  of  the  wealthy ;  these 
stand,  in  the  prodigality  of  God,  where  the  hus- 
bandman plies  his  scythe  and  beside  the  poor 
man's  cottage  door.  Yet  not  the  meanest  of  them 
all  but  is  clad  in  raiment  fit  for  a  king  ;  nay,  their 
soft  petals  are  woven  with  a  fineness  of  fibre  and 
closeness  of  transparent  texture  such  as  no  loom 
can  rival,  in  tints  whose  delicacy  and  purity  sur- 
pass the  dyes  of  Tyre.'  For  the  dress  of  man, 
being  artificial  and  his  own,  can  be  nothing  more 
than  borrowed  as  to  its  material,  and  imitated 
as  to  its  colouring;  borrowed   from   the   plant's 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


70  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.  stem  or  from  the  worm's  cocoon  ;  imitated  from 
SECOND  the  radiant  colours  which  gleam  upon  the  wood- 
bird's  breast,  or  glow  among  the  grass  in  the 
wild-flower's  crown  of  splendour.  The  garments 
en.  iii.  7.  which  men  need  for  their  shame,  they  are  fain  to 
decorate  for  their  pride.  To  be  clothed  is  not 
enough;  they  must  be  clothed  in  gay  attire.  Yet, 
when  they  have  done  their  utmost,  they  only 
strive,  but  strive  in  vain,  to  emulate  that  profuse 
and  fairer  loveliness  which  God  has  scattered  over 
His  whole  creation.  '  Consider '  this  ;  watch  the 
silent  growth  of  lilies,  so  unlike  the  clash  and 
hurry  of  man's  spinning  factory ;  and  as  each  one 
uprears  its  tender  stem  of  green,  and  unfolds  above 
its  glorious  coronet  of  purple  or  of  gold,  think 
whether  He  Who  cares  to  make  so  fair  the  grass 
of  the  field  that  blossoms  for  a  day,  may  not  be 
trusted  to  drape  in  needful  garments  the  unshel- 
tered and  ashamed  flesh  of  His  immortal  child ! 

Such  a  generous  confidence  in  the  providential 
care  of  God  for  to-morrow's  provision  both  of 
food  and  of  clothing,  rests  as  a  matter  of  course 
on  our  own  diligence  and  careful  prudence  to-day. 
To  act  as  if  we  were  fowls  or  lilies,  and  needed 
as  little  as  they  to  sow  and  spin,  would  be  no  less 
insolent  than  preposterous.  It  is  only  after  God's 
noblest  creature  and  proper  child  has  done  all 


Against  Anxiety. 


71 


that  lies  in  the  child's  part  to  do,  according  to  his 
constitution  and  place  in  creation, — has  sown  his 
field  where  the  birds  are  picking  up  their  portion 
from  the  furrow,  and  woven  his  garment  in  imita- 
tion of  the  splendour  of  lilies, — that  man,  the 
sower  and  the  reaper  and  the  spinner,  comes  to 
stand  in  the  same  position  of  immediate  depend- 
ence upon  the  care  of  God  which  the  lower 
creatures  occupy.  By  nature  he  is  a  provident 
animal ;  they  improvident  by  nature.  It  is  the 
privilege  of  his  nobility  that  he  can  be,  up  to  a 
given  point,  a  fellow-worker  with  God  in  that 
needful  toil,  and  in  that  moral  forethoughtfulness, 
and  even  in  that  artistic  skill,  by  which  creature 
existence  is  both  sustained  and  adorned.  Here, 
therefore,  and  up  to  this  point,  every  true  child 
who  prizes  his  place  of  fellowship  with  the  Father, 
will  work  where  the  Father  has  wrought  before 
him  and  still  is  working  with  him.  All  effective 
profitable  labour  of  man,  whether  for  use  or  for 
beauty, — for  the  culture  of  the  soil  or  the  decora- 
tion of  the  robe, — rests  on  a  child-like  comprehen- 
sion first,  and  then  a  child-like  imitation,  of  the 
w^orks  of  God.  We  are  the  students  and  the 
coadjutors  of  the  Divine  Worker  in  those  natural 
processes  by  which  His  earth  is  made  to  minister 
to  its  inhabitants  ;  and  we  can  have  no  right  to 


PART 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


WARNING. 


72  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.  expect  that  He  Who  invites  the  attention  of  our 
SECOND  intellect  and  the  aid  of  our  hand,  will  do  for  His 
heedless  or  slothful  children  what  they  will  not  do 
for  themselves.  But  when  the  human  faculties 
have  been  fairly  employed  in  their  legitimate 
sphere,  and  man  has  striven,  as  he  could,  to  enter 
into  this  honourable  place  assigned  him  as  his 
distinction  over  inferior  creatures,  is  it  to  be 
thought  that  He  Who  caters  for  the  birds  and 
clothes  the  grass,  will  forget  to  bless  the  labour, 
or  refuse  to  provide  for  the  wants,  of  one  w^hom 
He  has  associated  with  Himself  in  a  nobler  fellow- 
ship of  intelligence  and  of  toil  ? 

Before  I  pass  from  this  exquisite  appeal  to  the 
providence  of  God  in  His  inferior  creation,  I  can- 
not but  notice  how  significant  it  is  of  our  Lord's 
eye  for  nature.  In  contrast  to  ancient  systems  of 
nature- worship,  it  was  characteristic  first  of  Juda- 
ism and  then  of  Christianity,  that  they  fastened 
attention  on  the  exceptional  dignity  of  man  as 
the  only  moral  and  immortal  creature  upon  earth, 
on  sin  as  the  supreme  fact  in  human  experience, 
and  on  the  rectification  of  our  spiritual  relations 
with  God  as  our  supreme  need.  In  Christianity 
especially,  the  salvation  of  the  soul  becomes  the 
one  thing  of  transcendent  moment  in  man's  earthly 
existence.     It  is  not  wonderful  that  the  effect  of 


Against  Anxiety.  V3 

such  teaching  was  at  first,  and  has  often  been,  to      part  i. 
quench  the  delight  of  Christians  in  natural  beauty,      second 

.  WARNING. 

to  discourage  science  as  a  waste  of  time  and  art 
as  a  vain  idolatry,  and  to  lead  devout  minds  to 
feel  as  if  nothing  else  on  earth  deserved  a  mo- 
ment's thought  save  the  eternal  interests  of  man 
himself.  How  little  countenance  any  such  un- 
natural or  one-sided  excess  of  religious  earnest- 
ness derives  from  our  Master,  this  present  passage 
is  enough  to  teach  us.^  The  interests  of  human 
spirits  could  not  but  be  the  one  matter  on  earth  cf.  for  ex- 
of  supreme  consequence  to  Him  Who  had  come  l^\i-u.  ^ 
to  earth  on  purpose  to  ransom  them  ;  yet  His 
spirit  was  so  healthily  balanced,  that  He  could 
spare  time  and  thought  not  only  for  men's  bodies, 
but  even  for  the  inferior  animals.  To  note  the 
habits  of  the  birds,  and  watch  with  kindly  eye 
their  happy  carelessness  upon  the  wing,  was  a 
portion  of  His  duty  and  delight  Who  walked  His 
Father's  earth  as  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  it  was  not  a 
forgotten  portion.  When  science  shall  have  learnt 
to  observe  and  examine  nature  in  the  same  spirit 
of  child-like  joy  in  God,  in  hope  to  draw  from  its 
researches  a  profounder  and  more  intelligent  ac- 

1  Our  Lord's  close  observation  of  nature  and  delight  in  it  may- 
be inferred  from  such  incidental  notices  in  the  Gospels  as  the 
following  :  Matt.  xvi.  2  ;  Luke  xii.  54 ;  Matt.  xxiv.  32  ;  John 
XV.  1-6  ;  Matt,  xxiii.  37,  xxvi.  34 ;  and  others. 


74  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.       quaintance  with  the  thoughts  of  God,  on  which 
SECOND      to  rear  a  more  perfect  trust  in  Him,  science  will 

WARNING.       -  ,.,..,.,  „  .  -,-»         .  -n 

be  accomplishing  its  highest  function.  But  it  will 
then  walk  in  the  footsteps  of  Christ ;  by  patient 
investigation  and  in  exacter  methods  following 
up  the  hint  which  is  really  offered  to  us  by  His 
popular  interpretations  of  nature.  It  is  quite  the 
same  with  art.  The  moral  and  reli^^ious  res^ene- 
ration  of  mankind  was  the  task  which  consumed 
the  labours  and  drunk  up  the  spirit  of  our  Master ; 
yet  He  could  pause  on  His  way  to  admire  the 
colour  of  a  lily.  The  law  which  regulates  all 
decorative  art  is,  that  it  shall  apply  to  the  adorn- 
ment of  whatever  is  required  for  human  conveni- 
ence, such  principles  of  beauty  in  form  and  colour 
as  have  been  reached  by  the  study  of  beauty 
in  nature.  This  is  just  the  law  which  underlies 
our  Lord's  comparison  and  preference  of  the  flower 
to  the  royal  robe ;  while  the  evident  love  He  has 
for  the  simple  loveliness  of  form  and  colour  in  a 
wild-flower  is  precisely  the  root  out  of  which  all 
great  art  has  ever  sprung.  A  docile  and  delighted 
affection  for  the  workmanship  of  God's  hand,  is 
in  truth  the  christian  attitude  to  every  natural 
phenomenon.  Out  of  this  root  it  is  that  these 
fair  twin  growths  come  forth  :  the  study  of  natu- 
ral facts  and  laws,  so  that  from  what  He  does  we 


Against  Anxiety.  75 

may  learn  what  God  thinks,  whicli  is  science  ;      part  i. 
and  the  study  of  natural  beauty,  so  that  from      second 
what  He  has  done  joyfully,  we  may  learn  what 
God  admires,  which  is  art. 

(3.)  For  convenience'  sake,  I  have  treated  to- 
gether the  lessons  of  the  bird  and  of  the  lily ;  • 
but  between  these  two  our  Teacher  interjects  a  Ver.  27. 
third  argument  to  show  the  unreasonableness  of 
anxiety.  Perhaps  it  is  inserted  immediately  after 
the  lesson  of  the  fowls  which  God  feeds,  just 
because  it  attaches  itself  to  the  idea  of  food  rather 
than  to  that  of  clothing.  But  the  question, 
'  Which  of  you,  by  taking  thought,  can  add  one 
cubit  unto  his  stature  V  covers  what  is  really  a 
new  argument.  What  that  argument  is,  comes 
out  quite  clearly  from  the  words  (awanting  in  St. 
Matthew)  with  which  St.  Luke,  in  a  parallel  place, 
continues  the  reasoning  :  '  If  ye  then  be  not  able  Luke  xii  26. 
to  do  that  thing  which  is  least,  why  take  ye 
thought  for  the  rest  V  Wliat,  then,  is  this  '  least  ixixttrr*,. 
thing'  which  no  one  can  do  ?  The  words  of  our 
English  version  suggest  of  themselves  some  sus- 
picion of  error  in  the  rendering  ;  for,  to  add  a 
'  cubit'  (which  can  hardly  mean  less  than  a  foot 
and  a  half  ^)  to  the  height  of  a  man  would  be  so 
far  from  a  '  least'  thing,  that  it  would  be  an  enor- 

1  Some  uncertainty  obtains  as  to  the  longer  and  shorter 


76  The  Belations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      mous  and  unheard  of  thing.     The  word  our  Lord 
SECOND      uses,  however,  means  strictly  the  period  of  life 

WARNING.  ... 

fiXiKU  when  a  man  is  at  his  maturity;  embracing,  of 

course,  the  two  connected  ideas  of  the  years  he  has 
lived  and  the  physical  development  he  has  attained. 

John  ix.  21, 23.1  In  at  least  one  passage  of  the  Gospels,  it  carries 
this  sense.  Here  we  are  certainly  guided  by  the 
connection  to  the  idea  of  age  or  period  of  life, 
rather  than  to  that  of  height  or  personal  stature. 
It  is  of  the  food  by  which  life  is  prolonged  Jesus 
has  been  speaking ;  not  yet  of  the  body,  its 
stature  or  its  dress.  And  though  the  use  of  the 
word  '  cubit '  in  relation  even  to  the  length  of 
one's  life  sounds  in  our  ears  a  little  harsh,  it  is 
really  quite  as  natural  a  metaphor  as  when  David 

Ps.  xxxix.  5.  sighs  :  *  Thou  hast  made  my  days  as  an  hand- 
breadth.'  So  read,  the  reasoning  becomes  at  least 
intelligible.  Experience  teaches  that  such  anxiety 
as  Jesus  reproves  is  a  useless  thing.  To  what 
serves  all  our  fretting  and  fidgeting  over  the 
future,  when  we  cannot  so  much  as  prolong  by 
the  least  bit  the  measure  of  our  own  days,  or  the 

scriptural  measures  known  under  this  name,  and  their  exact 
lengths.     See  art.  in  Smith's  Diet. ,  '  Weights  and  Measures. ' 

^  On  the  other  hand,  it  certainly  means  *  stature '  in  Luke 
xix.  3  ;  probably  also  in  ii.  52.  In  Heb.  xi.  11  it  undoubtedly 
has  the  sense  of  '  the  child-bearing  period  of  life  ;'  and  in  Eph. 
iv.  13  it  may  possibly  be  'full  manhood'  (as  the  age  of  military 
service  ?). 


Against  Anxiety. 


77 


period  of  manhood's  unbroken  strength  ?  You  fear 
for  coming  years  ;  but  no  carefulness  on  your  part 
can  so  much  as  secure  that  you  shall  live  to  see 
them.  You  would  fain  control  beforehand  those 
myriad  influences  of  nature  and  of  human  fortune 
which  threaten  beforehand  to  overwhelm  your 
life  with  calamity ;  how  vain  a  craving  in  a 
creature  so  impotent  that,  were  all  the  resources 
of  nature,  together  with  every  human  assistance, 
at  your  command,  you  could  not  avert  by  one  hour 
the  disabling  stroke  of  sickness  or  the  fatal  shaft 
of  death  I  Why  need  men  vex  themselves  in  vain 
over  the  great  and  far-off  things  of  the  world's 
providence  and  of  its  future,  since  so  near  and 
small  a  matter  as  their  own  fragile  existence  is 
from  moment  to  moment  suspended  upon  the  will 
of  Another  ?  So  long  as  he  is  content  to  move 
within  the  narrow  room  allowed  him,  man  can  do 
something  to  help  himself ;  but  it  is  by  respect- 
ing those  bars  of  creature  limitation  which  so 
closely  fence  him  in,  not  by  dashing  his  feeble- 
ness against  their  iron  strength. 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


II.  Thus  by  argument  after  argument,  open  aU 
of  them  to  the  eye  of  natural  reason,  did  the  Son 
of  God  intend  His  earthly  works  and  providence 
to  persuade  men  to  live  dependent  lives,  confiding 


WARNING. 


78  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.  in  their  Creator's  bounty.  Thus  from  the  first  it 
SECOND  had  been  a  lesson  of  creation  that  He  Who  made 
us  living  men  might  be  trusted  to  care  for  the 
perishable  life  He  has  kindled  in  our  frames  ;  and 
a  lesson  of  providence,  which  lets  no  creature 
want,  that  much  less  shall  we  be  left  without  any 
Eye  to  oversee  or  any  Hand  to  provide  for  us  ;  and 
a  lesson  of  our  own  daily  experience  that  anxiety 
is  futile,  since  we  are  impotent  to  control  events, 
or  so  much  as  secure  for  ourselves  one  hour  of 
lusty  life.  But,  forasmuch  as  these  voices  of 
nature  had  proved  too  low  to  be  caught,  or  too 
inarticulate  to  be  understood,  or  too  unwelcome 
to  be  remembered ;  so  that,  in  point  of  fact,  the 
nations  of  mankind  had  not  been  preserved  from 
the  most  distressing  and  faithless  anxiety  in  their 
struggle  for  existence  :  therefore  is  the  Son  of  God 
come  down  to  interpret  into  human  speech  these 
unheard  or  unheeded  lessons ;  and  not  to  rehearse 
them  only  in  our  hearing,  but  to  add  to  them  the 
far  more  cogent  persuasive  of  a  new  revelation. 

The  Gentile  nations  of  the  world  had  failed  to 
learn  from  natural  reason  and  religion  this  lesson 
of  confidence  in  God.  Two  main  causes  led  to 
their  failure,  both  of  them  lying  very  deep  in  the 
character  of  heathenism.  For  one  thing,  they  had 
received  no  adequate  revelation  of  God  as  their 


Against  Anxiety. 


79 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


spiritual  Father;  and  for  want  of  that  nearer, 
tenderer,  and  more  reassuring  tie,  they  forfeited 
even  such  assurance  as  they  might  reasonably 
have  felt  in  His  kindness  as  a  faithful  and  pro- 
vident Creator.  Sinful  man,  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say,  cannot  continue  to  confide  even  in  the 
common  providence  of  his  Maker,  so  long  as  he 
knows  Him  only  as  a  Maker,  and  not  as  a  recon- 
ciling pardoning  Father.  The  result,  therefore, 
in  the  experience  of  heathens,  was  to  banish  the 
gods  from  any  hearty  or  benevolent  superintend- 
ence over  the  every-day  affairs  of  private  men;  to 
put  chance  in  the  room  of  providence,  and  destiny 
in  the  seat  of  Deity ;  or,  at  least,  to  ascribe  to 
such  far-off  divinities  as  were  still  supposed  to 
take  some  interest  in  mundane  affairs,  a  tendency 
to  interfere  with  humanity  in  ways  so  capricious, 
partial,  or  mischievous,  that  it  would  have  been 
better  for  them  not  to  interfere  at  all  The  other 
cause  which  helped  to  fasten  down  heathendom  Ver.  33, 
to  an  anxious  pursuit  of  whatever  might  minister 
to  the  body,  was  that  it  had  no  better  object  set 
before  it  to  pursue.  Cut  off  from  any  present 
intercourse  with  the  Godhead,  shut  in  by  uncer- 
tainty respecting  any  life  to  come,  this  life  only 
remained  to  the  pagan,  and  this  life,  too,  on  its 
earthly  and  perishing  side.     If  the  gods  dwelt 


80 


The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


aloof,  they  had  left  to  men  at  least  the  earth  for 
an  inheritance.  If  no  one  could  say  what  might 
be  after  death,  what  could  be  more  needful  to 
win,  or  better  worth  enjoying,  than  those  earthly 
goods  which  sustain  and  comfort  this  fleeting  life  ? 
After  all  these  things,  therefore,  did  the  nations 
of  the  Gentile  world  seek ;  sought  them  as  their 
chief  end  and  as  the  best  reward  of  all  their 
labour.  How  could  the  heathen  spirit  raise  itself 
above  an  eager,  sordid,  and  life-consuming  search 
after  things  to  eat  or  drink  and  raiment  to  put 
on,  when  there  had  not  yet  been  revealed  to  it 
any  Kingdom  of  God  to  be  sought  after  ? 

The  anxious  pursuit  of  earthly  gain,  then,  is 
simply  heathenish.  It  consorts  with  a  state  in 
which  man  knows  of  no  Father  in  heaven  and  no 
Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  But  to  say  that,  is, 
in  the  most  absolute  and  emphatic  terms,  to  forbid 
it  to  the  Christian.  Jesus  addressed  a  company 
who,  both  as  Jews,  and  now  much  more  as  His 
own  pledged  followers,  stood  on  another  level 
than  the  '  Gentiles.'  They  knew  that  they  had 
a  heavenly  Father,  a  living,  seeing,  loving,  over- 
ruling Parent,  Who  knew  what  they  needed,  and 
felt  for  them  in  their  straits,  and  was  too  good  to 
let  them  go  without.  We  are  no  longer  left  to 
gather  by  the  cold  inferences  of  a  creature's  reason 


Against  Anxiety,  81 

what   such  a  Creator  as  we  can   trace   by  His      part  i. 
footprints  in  beast  and  plant,  may  be  presumed      second 

WARNING. 

to  do  for  us.  God  has  spoken,  not  simply  by 
nature,  but  across  it  (so  to  speak),  and  the  voice 
that  pierces  the  silences  of  creation  is  the  voice 
of  a  Father.  God  has  drawn  the  veil  aside  to 
let  us  see  Him  face  to  face,  and  the  countenance 
we  discover  in  Jesus  Christ  is  the  countenance  of 
a  Father.  God  has  called  us  to  His  feet  in  peni- 
tence, washed  us  from  our  guilt  in  blood,  folded 
us  in  the  bliss  of  pardon  to  His  heart ;  and  the 
heart  of  which  we  feel  the  pulses  beat  against  our 
own  is  the  heart  of  a  Father.  Whoever  has  re- 
ceived a  revelation  like  this  can  never  more  fear 
neglect,  or  starvation,  or  the  vicissitudes  of  adverse 
fortune.  Shall  He  Who  sacrificed  so  much  to  save 
the  souls  of  men,  forget  their  bodies  ?  He  broke 
His  Son's  flesh  to  be  a  bread  of  life  for  us:  will  cf.  Joim  vi. 

27-58 

He  deny  us  the  meat  that  perishes?  Our  naked 
spirits,  stripped  of  their  honour  through  our  sin. 
He  has  robed  in  that  fair  marriage-robe  of  linen, 
dazzling  white,  which  '  is  the  righteousness  of  Rev.  xix.  8. 
saints;'  and  need  we  fear  for  earthly  raiment? 
What !  shall  a  child  want  in  his  Father's  house  ? 
Nay,  let  St.  Paul  expand  for  us  in  reply  the 
splendid  reasoning  which  lurks  beneath  his 
Master's  words :  '  He  that  spared  not  His  own  Rom.  viii.  32. 

F 


8  2  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.  Son,  but  delivered  Him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall 
SECOND  He  not  with  Him  also  freely  give  us  all  things  ? ' 
!N"or  is  this  all.  Our  Father  has  expressly  re- 
leased His  christian  family  from  every  anxious 
question  about  earthly  provision,  by  finding  for 
them  another  and  a  nobler  interest  to  care  for. 
After  food  and  raiment  the  heathen  seek  with 
absorbing  eagerness,  because  they  know  no  more 
urgent  care  in  life  than  how  to  live.  '  But  seek 
ye  first,'  says  Jesus,  'the  kingdom  of  God  and 

Ver.  3?.  His  righteousness.'^     Before  the  soul  of  His  dis- 

ciple, this  divine  Eestorer  of  the  rule  of  God  over 
human  lives  sets  His  own  mighty  task,  and  invites 
him  to  become  His  associate  in  the  enterprise. 

Rom.  xiv.  17.  '  The  kingdom  of  God  '  is  '  righteousness  '  first 
of  all.  It  means  the  practical  re-establishment 
of  the  divine  authority  over  man's  will,  so  that 
each  subject  returns  to  his  allegiance,  and  submits 
to  God's  perfect  law.  It  reaches  this,  indeed, 
through  the  manifestation  of  so  supreme  a  love 
on  God's  part,  love  dying  to  reconcile  and  stoop- 
ing to  regenerate,  as  captures  the  affections  of  the 

cf.  2  Cor.  V.     redeemed  heart.     But  captured  affections  '  con- 

14  15 

'     "  strain'  to  service.     The  pardoned  rebel  becomes 

^  If  the  reading  of  the  Vatican  MS. ,  '  His  righteousness  and 
kingdom, '  which  is  preferred  by  Tischendorf  and  Lachmann,  be 
adopted,  the  sense  will  not  be  materially  altered.  The  Sinaitic 
reads,  '  His  kingdom  and  righteousness. ' 


Against  Anxiety.  83 

a  loyal  and  law-abiding  citizen  under  the  righteous       part  r. 
Prince.     Nay,  so  long  as  his  steps  are  among  the      second 

-r^-        ,      n  .         -.   .  11  •  1  WARNING. 

King  s  foes  m  this  revolted  province,  he  must  even 
be  a  soldier  on  the  side  of  lawful  authority  and 
divine  order,  against  anarchy,  self-will,  and  dis- 
affection. As  yet,  the  Prince  of  Peace  is  a  belli- 
gerent. As  yet,  the  Prince  of  Eighteousness  Cf.  i  Cor.  xv. 
labours  to  recover  His  kingdom  to  the  Father ; 
and  no  man  can  be  deemed  a  true  subject  or 
honest  follower  who  has  not  become  inspired  with 
an  enthusiastic  longinc^  to  see  his  Prince's  mission 
achieved,  and  the  Father's  government  re-estab- 
lished. Over  himself,  first  of  all,  to  be  sure ;  for 
it  is  with  the  miniature  kingdom  of  his  own 
nature  and  the  subjugation  of  it  to  the  law  of 
right,  that  each  man  has  most  nearly  to  do.  He 
who  is  content  to  leave  his  private  passions  in- 
subordinate, or  his  own  life  at  variance  with  God, 
has  no  call  to  set  himself  up  as  the  censor  of  other  cf.  below  on 

Matt  vii  5 

men.  That  is  a  cheap  kind  of  loyalty  to  Christ 
which  goes  abroad  to  seek  its  work — preaching  a 
kingdom  of  God  to  the  world,  while  the  inner 
kingdom  of  the  heart  is  in  the  hands  of  lawless 
selfishness.  Still,  no  one  lives  for  himself  alone. 
The  kingdom  of  righteousness  is  struggling  to  get 
.  itself  set  up  here  in  the  midst  of  us — at  the  heart 
of  our  domestic,  social_,  and  even  political  arrange- 


8  4  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      ments  ;  and  there  rests  on  each  subject  of  Christ 
SECOND      a  summons  to  do  his  little  share  on  the  right  side, 

WARNING.  n     r^T       •        i  T     /-N        T)  1  -J 

on  the  side  oi  Christ s  truth  and  Gods  authority 
and  man's  salvation. 

Now,  by  his  acceptance  of  this  diviner  mission, 
each  child  of  God  is  discharged  from  paltry  cares 
about  meat  and  drink.  There  is,  in  truth,  a  most 
generous  and  blessed  exchange  of  obligations  be- 
twixt Father  and  child.  The  Father's  chief  earthly 
concern,  that  of  which,  we  may  say  with  rever- 
ence, His  heart  of  love  hath  most  '  need,'  and  in 
which  the  honour  of  His  name  is  most  deeply 
engaged,  is  the  restoration  of  His  defied  authority 
over  His  redeemed  human  children.  With  a 
mysterious  craving  for  intelligent  sympathy  and 
co-operation  in  such  an  enterprise,  God  has  charged 
each  one  who  loves  Him  to  'seek'  this  'first;' 
and  the  childlike  love  of  each  son  will  make 
ardent  response.  To  throw  himself  into  the 
thoughts  of  his  Father,  to  bend  his  strength  to 
the  Father's  work,  to  sacrifice  personal  likings,  to 
fling  aside  whatever  would  embarrass  or  divert 
See  John  iv.  34.  him,  and  make  it  his  meat  and  drink  to  finish 
the  work  thus  given  him  to  do,  must  be  the 
ideal  of  any  generous  child ;  and  just  as  any 
child  approaches  to  this  ideal,  will  he  approach 
the  image  of  that  perfect  Child  Jesus.     But  in 


Against  Anxiety. 


85 


order  to  give  himself  with  anything  like  such  part  i. 
single-mindedness  and  devotion  to  the  kingdom  second 
of  God,  a  man  must  be  set  free  from  the  distrac- 
tion of  ignoble  cares,  and  those  mean  anxieties 
about  daily  bread  and  to-morrow's  evil,  which 
nibble  away  the  very  pith  of  the  soul.  These, 
therefore,  let  him  cast,  with  a  c^enerous  abandon- 
ment,  on  God.  You  have  need,  while  you  do 
God's  will,  of  food  and  raiment ;  and  God  knew 
it  when  He  called  you  to  His  work.  It  is  fair, 
that  while  He  expects  you  to  seek  first  His 
heavenly  kingdom,  you  should  expect  Him  to 
seek  for  you  an  earthly  provision.  Should  the 
child's  heart  even  forget  its  own  need  to  cumber 

o 

itself  exclusively  with  the  glory  of  its  Father's 
name  and  the  coming  of  His  realm,  that  blessed 
Father  will  not  be  less  generous  in  His  turn,  but 
will  take  most  sure   care  that   His   child   shaU 
never   want.       The   heart   which   hungers    after  Matt.  v.  6. 
righteousness    shall    be   fed   with   it ;    the   soul 
athirst    for    God    shall   be   'watered'   with   His  See  i  Cor.^xii. 
Spirit  abundantly,  and  find  It  to  be  a  water  of  ^vk^^c, 'Jorla-Ov- 
life.      But  the  bread  and  water  which  the  Father  iy'  i.f^  'vii.^38. 
knows  to  be  needfal  to  these  frail  and  mortal  in- 
struments through  which  alone  we  can  meanwhile 
work  His  will  or  seek  His  kingdom,  they  also 
shall  not  fail.     Ptather  they  '  shall  be  added  unto'  isa.  xxxiii. 


86  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.      us ;  thrown  in  along  with  the  heavenlier  things 
SECOND      w^e  seek,  as  a  make-weight  to  turn  the  scale,  or  an 
Ver  33  t  o<r-    overplus  of  bounty  from  the  generous  Father. 

Here  then,  at  last,  we  have  reached  Christ's 
effectual  cure  for  distrustful  anxiety.     If,  Chris- 

cf.  Piiii.  iv.  6.  tians  as  we  are,  with  a  Father  in  heaven  to  ask 
for  bread,  any  poor  heart  among  us  be  still  fretted 
with  fears  for  the  morrow  and  the  evil  it  may 
bring;  may  not  the  secret  of  such  heathenish 
disquietude  be  found  in  this,  that  we  are  not 
flinging  ourselves  with  sufficient  self-forgetfulness 
into  the  task  given  us  by  our  Father  ?  Perhaps 
we  are  like  some  Christians  of  whom  St.  Paul 

Phil.  ii.  21.  wrote,  who  sought  their  own,  not  the  things 
which  are  Jesus  Christ's.  It  is  when  we  are 
not  pursuing  as  our  first  concern  His  kingdom 
and  its  righteousness,  that  we  have  room  in  our 
unfilled  hearts  for  petty,  earthly,  and  selfish  cares. 
So  long  as  we  do  not  make  God's  interests  our 
supreme  care,  we  cannot,  or  we  dare  not,  cast  on 
God  the  charge  of  our  own  private  interests.  If 
we  would  live  free  of  thought  about  to-morrow, 
unburdened  to-day  by  the  evil  which  to-morrow, 
when  it  comes,  will  find  sufficient  for  itself,  and 
would  learn  the  secret  of  a  heart  light  as  a  bird's 
in  air,  ought  we  not  to  practise  a  more  entire  devo- 


Against  Anxiety.  87 

tion  to  the  doing  of  God's  righteous  will  and  the      part  i. 
seeking  of  His  spiritual  kingdom  ?     Then  might      second 
we  say,  with  loyal  reverence,  yet  with  filial  assur- 
ance :  Lord,  we  are  seeking  that  is  Thine ;  forget 
not  Thou  to  add  to  us  what  we  need. 

For  the  majority  of  men,  it  is  in  the  learning 
of  this  lesson  that  the  chief  discipline  of  ordinary 
life  may  be  said  to  lie.  A  few  are  tempted  by 
opulence,  and  called  to  withstand  the  seductive 
and  fascinating  gleam  of  gold — that  mighty  lord 
of  earth,  who  in  the  end  puts  out  the  eyes  and  vers.  22-24. 
takes  captive  the  soul  of  his  victims.  But  the 
many  must  always  be  beset  by  the  pressure  of 
earthly  necessities.  Tlieir  way  into  the  kingdom 
lies  through  days  of  toil  and  nights  of  anxiety ; 
day  and  night  alike  taken  in  possession  by  no 
nobler  concern  than  how  to  win  for  themselves 
and  their  little  ones  the  means  of  subsistence. 
Nothing  seems  at  first  sight  to  stamp  vanity 
more  conspicuously  on  the  lot  of  man,  than  to 
see  how  the  earthly  history  of  the  multitude, 
generation  after  generation,  may  be  summed  up 
only  in  this :  They  lived  that  they  might  be  able 
to  live ;  they  laboured  that  they  might  eat.  Yet 
this  road,  worn  by  so  many  weary  feet,  is  at  least  Matt.  xix.  23, 

and  parallels. 

the  safe  one  to  pass  through  life  by.     The  carriage 
way  along  which  the  rich  are  rolled  in  pride,  offers 


88  Tlie  Rdations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  I.       graver  perils  for  the  passenger  than  this  lowly  foot- 
.sEcoND      path.     It  is  on  the  whole  fortunate  for  the  many, 

WARNING.  ,  .  11.  I'lTT 

that  their  humble  circumstances  shield  them  irom 
those  all  but  irresistible  attractions  which  draw 
the  heart  of  the  ambitious  and  wealthy  to  earth 
and  fetter  it  to  its  treasures.  It  is  true  that 
squalid,  hopeless  penury,  when  long  endured,  is 
apt  enough  to  narrow  the  soul,  to  congeal  the 
heart,  to  destroy  self-respect,  and  to  put  bitter- 
ness in  the  place  at  once  of  faith  in  men  and 
faith  in  God.  Still  more  often  it  happens  that  a 
lifelong  familiarity  with  straits,  and  with  that 
most  exacting  of  all  problems,  '  What  shall  I  eat  ? ' 
drowns  the  soul  in  cares,  and  leaves  it  with  as 
weak  eyes  for  heavenly  light,  and  as  little  room 
for  heavenly  love,  as  even  the  passion  for  money. 
Still,  it  seems  to  be  in  the  nature  of  poverty  to 
suggest  God  more  than  wealth  does.  When  dili- 
gence is  like  to  miss  its  return  and  foresight 
fails  to  anticipate  disaster  ;  when,  after  everything 
that  human  skill  and  toil  can  effect,  means  run 
short,  and  want  like  a  gaunt  lier  in  wait  crouches 
outside  the  door, — then  surely,  if  ever,  is  the  hour 
to  lift  one's  resourceless  hands  to  Heaven  in  a 
mute  appeal  for  that  help  which  must  come  from 
above  or  not  come  at  all.  He  who  has  no  other 
friend,  must,  one  would  think,  claim  his  Father's 


Against  Anxiety.  89 

friendship.  As  a  snow-storm  will  drive  the  wild  part  i. 
deer  from  their  mountains  and  the  timid  song-bird  second 
from  the  bough,  to  seek  shelter  and  lood  among 
the  dreaded  dwellings  of  men,  so  may  the  sharp 
pinch  of  hunger  send  many  a  prodigal  to  his  Luke  xv. 
Father's  table ;  and  the  cry  of  a  hungry  child  is 
near  of  kin  to  a  prayer.  To  be  well  disciplined 
under  so  stern  a  schoolmaster  as  poverty,  and 
grow  familiar  with  the  answers  which  divine  pro- 
vidence is  ever  sending  to  the  appeals  of  want, 
and  learn  by  an  oft-renewed  experience  how 
blessed  it  is  in  the  end  to  be  reduced  to  one's 
last  strand  of  dependence  and  hang  helpless  upon 
the  bounty  of  the  all-merciful  Provider — this 
ought  to  write  deep  in  each  grateful  memory 
an  assurance  of  the  divine  faithfulness.  Even 
those  rarer  straits  into  which  most  people  fall  at 
one  juncture  or  another,  when  earthly  resources 
appear  to  be  threatened  with  exhaustion,  and 
treachery  or  sickness  or  business  losses  have 
jeopardized  the  success  of  one's  whole  life — even 
such  crises  of  anxiety  bring  with  them  an  ample 
reward,  if  they  teach  us  how  to  look  above 
human  aid  and  the  ministry  of  second  causes, 
and  to  call,  in  the  lowliness  of  a  child,  upon  Him 
Who  feeds  the  raven  and  Who  robes  the  lily. 
Viewed  as  an  exercise-ground  for  such  enduring 


90 


The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 


PART  I. 


SECOND 
WARNING. 


trust  in  God,  earth  assumes  a  nobler  aspect ;  and 
the  sordid  lot  of  those  who  toil  all  their  days  for 
bread  and  hardly  win  it,  becomes  transfigured 
into  glory  when  they  are  found  to  eat  the  morsel 
of  to-day  with  thanks  and  not  with  tears,  because 
they  look  to  a  Father's  love  for  the  uncertain 
morsel  of  to-morrow. 


PART    11. 

RELATIONS    TO    THE    WORLD 
AS    EVIL. 


91 


OF    CORRECTING    THE    WORLD'S 
EVIL. 


93 


Judge  not,  that,  ye  be  not  Judged.  For  with  what  judgment 
ye  judge,  ye  shall  be  judged ;  and  with  what  measure  ye  mete, 
it  shall  be  measured  to  you  [again'].  And  why  beholdest  thou 
the  mote  that  is  in  thy  brotherh  eye,  but  considerest  not  the 
beam  that  is  in  thine  own  eye  f  Or  how  wilt  thou  say  to  thy 
brother,  '■Let  me  pull  out  the  mote  out  of  thine  eye;'  and,  behold, 
a  beam  is  in  thine  own  eye  ?  Thou  hypocrite,  first  cast  out  the 
beam  out  of  thine  own  eye ;  and  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to 
cast  out  the  mote  out  oj  thy  brother'' s  eye.  Give  not  that  which 
is  holy  unto  the  dogs,  neither  cast  ye  your  pearls  before  swine, 
lest  they  trample  them  under  their  feet,  and  turn  again  and 
rend  you.— Matt.  vii.  1-6  ;  cf.  Luke  vi.  37-42. 


94 


OF    CORRECTING    THE    WORLD'S 
EYIL. 


I 


T  may  be  only  a  coincidence,  but  it  is  at  least      pari  n. 
a  curious  one,  that  the  word  'evil/  which        first 


suddenly  appears  at  the  close  of  the  last  para-  ^'^^^^J^^  '*^ 
graph,  is  actually  as  good  as  a  cue  to  this  new  iMatt.  \a.  84. 
section  of  the  sermon  which  opens  so  abruptly 
with  the  seventh  chapter.  It  is  with  the  moral 
evil  which  exists  in  the  world,  and  with  the 
relations  sustained  to  it  by  the  disciple  of  the 
kingdom,  that  we  are  now  to  be  occupied.  We 
have  seen  that  the  spiritual  kingdom  of  Christ,  ch.  vi.  19-34. 
while  it  holds  out  to  our  desire  celestial  riches 
and  sets  before  us  an  end  more  to  be  cared  for 
than  food  or  raiment,  does  not  withdraw  a  Chris- 
tian either  from  the  attractions  of  earthly  wealth 
or  from  the  need  of  earthly  provision.  It  regu- 
lates, but  does  not  destroy,  his  dealings  with 
property.  Just  in  the  same  way,  the  subject  of 
Christ's  new  kingdom  is  not  called  upon  to 
abandon  the  society  of  evil  men,  or  shut  his  eyes 
to    their   evil   acts.     No   sequestered   retreat   is 

95 


9  6  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  created  to  wliicli  christian  purity  may  betake 
FIRST  itself.  On  the  contrary,  the  followers  of  Jesus 
EVIL.  have  been  already  told  that  they  must  shine  as 
:Matt.  V.  13-16.  lights  in  a  dark  place,  and  act  as  salt  upon 
corrupt  society.  It  is  their  business  to  rebuke 
and  reform  those  evils  in  the  midst  of  which 
they  find  themselves ;  and  that  not  simply  by 
such  involuntary  influence  as  must  always  be 
exercised  by  a  holy  life  (which  was  taught  by 
the  lamp  and  salt  in  that  earlier  passage),  but 
even  by  direct  efforts  to  purify  the  world. 
Here  again,  however,  the  first  disciples  of  our 
King  stood,  as  we  still  stand,  in  the  utmost  need 
of  instruction  ;  and  instruction  needed  to  take 
to  a  large  extent  the  form  of  warning.  No  de- 
partment of  christian  practice,  indeed,  is  more 
delicate,  or  encompassed  by  graver  risks,  than  the 
behaviour  of  christian  men  tov/ards  the  sinful 
and  unchristian  elements  which  pervade  society. 
It  is  so  easy  to  condemn,  without  in  the  least 
reforming,  or  even  attempting  to  reform,  what  we 
condemn.  On  the  other  hand,  for  any  one  to 
set  himself  up  as  a  corrector  of  others  in  an 
officious  or  arrogant  or  self-righteous  temper,  is 
utterly  useless ;  while  even  sincere  men  with 
the  best  intentions  have  sometimes  an  injudicious 
way  of  putting  divine  lessons  before  the  wicked. 


Of  Correcting  the  World's  Evil  97 

which   is   worse   than   useless,  for   it  is  wholly      part  ii. 
raischievoiis.     Against  all  these  three  faulty  or       first 
mistaken  attitudes  which  Christians  may  assume    '    evil^ 
toward   evil  in   other   people,  —  against    simple 
fault-findinsf  for  fault-findino^'s  sake,  ae^ainst  cen- 
sorious  meddling,  and  against  foolish  or  ill-judged 
ways  of  doing  good, — our  Lord  proceeds  in  this 
paragraph  to  warn  His  followers.-^ 

1.  What  is  the  'judging'  so  loluntly  forbidden 
in  words  which,  through  their  remarkable  allitera- 
tion and  close  imitation  of  Hebrew  parallelism, 
have  made  themselves  almost  proverbial  ? 

'  Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged  :  Vers.  1,  2. 

For  with  what  judgment  ye  judge,  ye  shall  be  judged  ; 
And  with  what  measure  ye  measm'e,  it  shall  be  measured  to 
you. '  2 

It  is  superfluous  to  say  that  without  a  certain 
sort  of  judgment,  meaning  by  that  a  discrimina- 
tion betwixt  good  and  evil,  whether  in  actions 
or  in  actors,  and  a  frank  naming  of  each,  where 
needful,  by  its  proper  name,  we  could  never  act 

^  The  links  of  connection  in  this  passage  and  in  that  which 
succeeds  it  (vers.  7-12)  have  been  variously  interpreted  ;  and  so 
many  able  expositors  have  even  abandoned  in  despair  the 
attempt  to  find  any  links  of  connection  at  all,  that  I  venture 
upon  the  reading  given  in  the  text  with  the  utmost  difiidence. 

2  This  last  clause  reappears  in  a  different  connection  in  Mark 
iv.  24.     It  was  possibly  proverbial  before  our  Lord  adopted  it. 
G 


9  8  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  IT.      either  wisely  or  kindly  in  this  world  of  inex- 
FiRST       -tricably    mingled    good     and     evil.       To     form, 

RELATION  TO  ^  ^       ^  .  .     .  - 

EVIL.  and  at  times  to  express,  an  opmion  on  the 
character  or  conduct  of  other  men,  is  distinctly 

John  vii.  24.  rccogniscd  by  our  Lord  in  another  place  as  per- 
missible ;    while    the  power  of   doing    so   with 

1  Cor.  ii.  15.  truthfuliiess  is  by  an  apostle  described  as  a 
privilege  of  the  spiritually  instructed  Christian. 
But  when  Jesus  adds,  as  His  reason  why  we 
should  not  judge,  a  fear  lest  we  may  be  judged 
in  turn  by  the  same  standard.  He  puts  into  our 
hand  a  clue  to  the  discovery  of  His  meaning. 
The  sort  of  judgment  which  He  warns  us  not  to 
pass  on  others  is  such  judgment  as  we  should 
not  like  others  to  pass  on  us.  It  may  be  a 
question  whether  the  judgment  we  are  to  fear 
is  that  of  our  fellows  or  that  of  God  Himself. 

Luke  vi.  37, 38.  The  parallel  passage  in  St.  Luke,  where  the  idea 
is  worked  out  more  at  large,  appears  to  carry  the 
former  sense,  when  it  speaks  of  the  '  good 
measure,  pressed  down  and  shaken  together  and 
running  over,'  which  '  men^  give  into  the  bosom' 
of  him  who  gives  to  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  impersonal  form  of  the  phrase  in  Matthew 
('  ye  shall  be  judged ' — '  it  shall  be  measured  ') 

^  We  should  render  it  '  shall  they  give  '  i^uffovcn);  still  the  use 
of  the  plural  suggests  that  men  are  meant. 


Of  Cm-reding  the  WorhVs  Evil  99 

rather  suge^ests  a  reference  to  the  real  and  ulti-      taet  ii. 
mate  Judge  of  all.    At  all  events,  such  a  reference       first 

1      -.      T  n  1  11  •         RELATION  TO 

IS  not  excluded ;  and  we  have  already  seen  m  evil. 
this  Sermon,  that  while  the  rule  of  retaliation,  Matt.  v.  38. 
common  as  it  actually  is  among  men,  can  never 
be  a  safe  rule  for  us,  it  is  nevertheless  God's 
everlasting  axiom  of  justice  and  the  foundation 
of  all  right  jurisprudence.  Both  with  a  view, 
therefore,  to  the  criticisms  which  our  neighbours 
may  pass,  with  or  without  reason,  upon  our 
conduct,  and  with  regard  to  the  final  award  of 
Heaven,  our  Lord  bids  us  judge  others  only  as 
we  would  have  others  to  judge  us. 

"What  kinds  of  judgment  this  will  exclude  we 
can  be  at  no  loss  to  discover.  No  one  likes,  for 
example,  to  have  the  worst  possible  construction 
put  upon  his  conduct.  There  are  some  people 
who,  like  carrion-birds,  have  the  keenest  scent  for 
garbage,  and  will  fly  far  to  seek  it ;  who  always 
suspect  base  reasons  for  whatever  looks  generous, 
and  extilt  in  exposing  them  to  view :  but  we  are 
not  apt  to  conclude  that  such  men's  OAvn  motives 
are  the  purest  or  their  ow^n  life  the  sweetest  in 
the  world.  We  pay  them  back  in  their  own 
coin.  ]!^either  does  any  one  like  to  be  at  once 
condemned  on  external  or  primd  facie  evidence. 
We  all  know^  our  own  motives  better  than  our 


100  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  critics  do ;  and  we  know  how,  wlien  our  actions 
FIRST  look  most  suspicious,  there  are  concealed  facts 
evil!  which,  if  known,  would  put  a  better  colour  on 
the  case.  Therefore  let  none  of  us  be  so  unfair, 
not  to  say  ungracious,  as  to  condemn  his  neigh- 
bour on  mere  surface  appearances  or  on  idle  suspi- 
cion ;  nay,  nor  prematurely  to  pronounce  upon  his 
neighbour's  motives  at  all ;  since,  so  long  as  the 
hidden  things  of  the  heart  are  hidden,  we  cannot 
without  risk  of  error  presume  to  sit  in  judgment 
on  the  real  moral  condition  of  any  man.  It  is 
the  Lord  Who  at  His  coming  will  both  '  bring  to 

1  Cor.  iv.  5.  light  the  hidden  things  of  darkness,  and  will 
make  manifest  the  counsels  of  the  hearts.'  Even 
as  regards  plain  and  patent  faults  of  the  outer 
life,  there  are  people  so  ready  at  fault-finding,  so 

Prov.  xvii.  9.  scant  in  praise,  so  untender  in  trumpeting  to  the 
world  their  neighbour's  failing,  and  so  provokingly 
condescending  when  they  mention  it  to  himself, 
that  everybody  shrinks  from  them  as  by  instinct. 
Faults  are  the  sores  of  character ;  and  just  as  one 
guards  a  wound,  and  resents  the  needless  or 
ungentle  touch  of  merely  curious  bystanders,  so 
do  we  with  the  fault-finder.  Therefore  let  us 
not  be  forward  to  point  the  finger  at  flaws  in 
others  which,  however  patent,  we  should  not  care 
to  have  pointed  out    in   ourselves.      Nay,   this 


Of  Correcting  the  WorlcVs  Evil  101 

same  test  is  delicate  enoiigli  to  conclemn  even      paet  n. 
such  private  criticism  upon  a  brother  as  I  may       first 

_      ,  ^     ,       -  .  T  ^      RELATION  TO 

lorbear  to  utter  and  lock  up  m  my  own  breast.  evil. 
How  should  I  feel  if  I  only  knew  that  my  fair- 
spoken  companion  was  mentally  making  un- 
gracious comments  on  me,  or  passing  upon  my 
character  an  unuttered  condemnation  ?  Would 
not  the  bare  suspicion  of  such  secret  censorious- 
ness  freeze  up  affection,  and  rear  betwixt  us  an 
ice- wall  of  distrust  ?  We  have  to  live  with  one 
another  ;  and  the  kindly  thoughts  of  others  about 
ourselves  is  as  the  breath  of  life  to  us.  The 
more  sensitive  any  one  is  to  praise  or  blame, — 
the  more  he  would  resent  gratuitous  fault-finding 
as  an  impertinence,  or  be  pained  by  ungenerous 
imputations  as  a  wrong, — so  much  the  slower 
ought  he  to  be  to  expose  the  weak  points  of 
other  men,  or  to  reflect  upon  their  motives.  Nay, 
more  :  if  we  would  escape  not  only  the  harsh  and 
unfair  condemnation  of  men,  but  far  more  the 
rigorous  and  unmitigated  justice  of  Heaven,  it 
behoves  us  to  turn  our  judgment  into  charity. 
Instead  of  filling  up  a  brimming  measure  with 
accusations  and  insinuations  and  sneers  and  the 
cold  censure  of  the  self-righteous,  let  us  rather 
give  liberally  of  our  most  kindly  and  pardoning  Cf.  Prov.  x.  12; 
charity.     Fill  up   the   measure  with  that  love 


102  Tlic  Rtiatioiis  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  11.      which  hopes  for  the  best,  finds  excuses  for  the 
FIRST       bad,  and  would  gladly  cover  over  the  worst ;  fill 

EELATIOX  TO     .,  T  •;        i  i         i      n  •  -n 

EVIL.        it   up,   and    press  it   down,   and   shake   it  well 
together,  and  brim  it  to  the  lip  till  it  overflows, 
for  it  will  return.      Such  measure  will  the  thank- 
ful hearts  of  men  pour  back  into  your  bosom. 
\  Human  nature  is  not  so  bad  but  it  will  answer 
I  yet  to  kindness  ;  men  press  the  hand  that  presses 
theirs.     While   surely   a   day   is   coming  when, 
before  the  face  of  a  righteous  Judge,  the  best  of 
Cf.  Matt.  V.      us  will  have  need  of  all  the  mercy  that  he  has 

21-26 

shown  to  others. 

It  is,  in  truth,  the  consciousness  of  our  own 
faults  which  alone  can  make  us  tender  to  the 
Ver.  3,  faults  of  Others.      Therefore  the  strongly  meta- 

phorical proverb  by  which  our  Lord  proceeds  to 
teach  that  self-knowledge  is  the  mother  of  charity, 
though  it  is  introduced  mainly  for  another  end, 
does  really  cast  back  important  light  on  His  open- 
ing words  against  'judging.'  That  the  man  with 
the  biggest  beam  in  his  own  eye  is  apt  to  be  the 
severest  censor  of  his  brother's  mote,  is  true  to 
human  experience.  For  this  very  reason,  un- 
charitable judgment  is  precisely  that  fault  from 
which  a  Christian  ought  to  be  exceptionally  free. 
Does  not  a  profound  and  heart-burdening  con- 
sciousness  of  one's  own  sin  lie   at  the  base  of 


Of  Correcting  the  World's  Evil.  103 

cliristian  character  ?     Is  it  not  through  the  humi-      part  n. 
liation  of  a  contrite  self-condemnation  that  every       first 

1  .  1         1    .  1  P    /->(      1   o         TT  RELATION  TO 

soul  must  enter  into  the  kmgdom  oi  God  ?  Has  evil. 
not  Jesus  opened  this  discourse  by  blessing  the  Matt.  v.  3-5. 
poor,  the  mournful,  and  the  meek  ?  Yet,  while 
christian  repentance,  where  it  is  genuine,  must 
always  save  a  man  from  sitting  in  judgment 
upon  his  brother,  the  self-righteousness  of  human 
nature,  reappearing  in  Christianity  as  it  appeared 
in  Judaism,  has  constantly  led  to  the  very  opposite 
result.  There  is  no  one  so  prone  to  pass  severe 
and  unnecessary  censure,  as  he  who  imagines  that 
he  has  entered  tlie  kingdom  of  heaven  by  some 
other  door,  without  having  passed  through  this 
strait  gate  of  penitence.  To  take  one's  self  for  a 
Christian,  and  yet  be  ignorant  of  the  extent  of 
one's  own  guilt  and  evil-heartedness,  is  to  be 
exactly  in  that  state  of  blind  conceit  which 
qualifies  a  man  for  the  role  of  a  heartless  and 
reckless  and  utterly  unrighteous  judge.  We  see 
it  every  day  :  men  whose  religion  consists  in  little 
else  than  indiscriminate  abuse  of  the  rest  of  the 
world,  who  never  try  to  understand  the  tempta- 
tions of  the  fallen,  nor  ever  put  out  a  hand  to 
help  them,  but  are  content  from  some  serene 
summit  of  implied  superiority  to  survey  with  a 
wondering  pity  the  miserable  condition  of  common 


104  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      sinners,   to  measure   by  their  own  standard  the 
FIRST       criminality  of  whole  classes  and  races  of  their 
fellow-men  and  utter  over  them  glib  sentences 


EVIL. 


of  condemnation,  without  one  touch  of  that  divine 
compassion  which  makes  its  brother's  case  its  own 
and  sorrows  where  it  is  forced  to  blame.  It  is 
true  that  all  Christians  are  not  to  be  reckoned  in 
this  unlovely  class  whom  the  world  reckons  in  it. 
The  world  can  misjudge  as  well  as  the  Christian. 
Indeed,  how  could  it  be  expected  that  the  world, 
whose  sins  are  by  the  Church  rebuked,  should 
always  do  justice  to  the  motives  of  its  rebuker  ? 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  idle  to  deny  that  nothing 
else  has  ever  done  so  much  as  religionists  of  this 
type  have  done  to  defame  religion  and  caricature 
the  spirit  of  Christianity. 

2.  The  case  is  not  mended  when  a  censorious 
Vers.  3, 4.  Christian,  not  content  with  barren  censorship, 
volunteers  to  correct  the  faults  which  he  con- 
demns. To  stand  aloof,  an  idle  spectator  of  the 
evil  that  is  in  the  world,  remarking  and  criticising 
each  mote  in  our  neighbour's  eye  in  that  un- 
gracious temper  which  comes  from  ignorance  of 
the  beam  in  one's  own — this  judicial  attitude 
toward  the  wicked  world  is  not  the  christian  atti- 
tude.    A  servant  of  Christ  should  try  to  make 


Of  Correcting  the  World's  Evil.  105 

the  bad  better.     Suppose,  then,  that,  passing  from      part  ii. 
the  office  of  a  judge  to  the  office  of  a  reformer,       first 

,         ^,      .       .  .  •    1     1    •  1  .  RELATION  1 

the  Christian  carries  with  him  the  same  ignorance  evil. 
of  himself  which  made  him  an  unfair  judge,  will 
it  not  now  make  him  also  a  bungling  reformer  ? 
If  it  was  out  of  place  to  set  up  as  the  censurer  of 
your  brother's  mote  when  your  own  faults  w^ere  to 
his  as  a  plank  to  a  splinter,  it  is  surely  still  more 
out  of  place  to  set  yourself  up  for  his  corrector.  Ver.  4. 
The  comparison  sounds  extravagant ;  since,  though 
minute  fragments  from  a  twig  may  get  into  the 
eye  and  need  to  be  taken  out,  to  speak  of  a 
great  beam  of  timber-^  in  the  same  connection 
is  absurd.  The  extravagance  of  the  phrase,  how- 
ever, did  not  hinder  its  being  a  usual  and  accepted 
one  in  oriental  speech ;  and  as  such  our  Lord 
borrowed  it  to  point  His  moral.  What  that  moral 
is,  is  plain  enough.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  in  a 
preposterous  degree  unbecoming  to  be  so  quick 
to  see,  much  more  to  propose  to  mend,  small 
faults  in  another  when  one's  own  are  so  very 
great.  It  is,  as  w^e  say,  like  '  Satan  reproving 
sin.'  Besides,  it  is  not  only  a  grotesque  betrayal 
of  self-ignorance,  but  a  presumptuous  over-esti- 

1  "hoxos  means  properly  such  a  '  beam  '  as  is  fit  to  be  employed 
for  the  joist  or  rafter  of  a  building.  xKp(po;,  again,  denotes  a 
minute  splinter,  as  of  brushwood. 


106  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      mate  of  one's  own  ability.     To  mend  a  brother's 
FIRST       fault,  one  has  need  of  a  most  clear  and  undis- 

IlELATION  TO 

EVIL.  torted  spiritual  vision,  an  eye  of  the  soul  quite 
single  and  limpid.  JSTo  task  asks  cleaner  motives, 
or  truer  insight,  or  more  of  that  perfect  fair- 
ness which  can  only  spring  from  love,  than  this 
task  of  a  reformer  of  manners.  I  can  scarcely 
doubt  that,  by  the  selection  of  this  metaphor,  our 
Lord  meant  to  hint  that  the  self-ignorance  whicli 
sets  itself  to  correct  others  before  it  has  corrected 
itself,  or  even  detected  its  own  need  of  correction, 
is  just  the  moral  condition  which  of  all  others 
disqualifies  a  man  for  such  an  enterprise.  The 
speck  you  think  you  have  discerned  in  your 
brother  may  be  nothing  else  than  the  projection 
of  a  false  image  from  your  own  distempered 
character.     '  How  canst  thou  say  to  thy  brother, 

So  in  Li^ke,  "  Brother,  let  me  put  out  the  mote  that  is  in 
thine  eye,"  when  thou  thyself  beholdest  not  the 
beam  that  is  in  thine  own  eye  V  Or,  as  our 
Lord   developes  His   thought   in   words  omitted 

Luke  vi,  39.  from  St.  Matthew's  report :  '  Can  the  blind  lead 
the  blind  ?  Shall  they  not  both  fall  into  the 
ditch  ?     The  disciple  is  not  above  his  master.' 

But  there  is  more  to  be  said  than  this.  The 
interference  of  such  blind  guides  and  ignorant 
teachers    is   worse   than   a   blunder.       It   is    an 


Of  Correcting  the  WorhTs  Evil.  107 

hypocrisy.  You  profess  to  be  so  deeply  con-  pakt  n. 
cerned  for  the  faults  of  your  neighbour,  that  you  first 
would  fain  do  him  a  service  by  ridding  him  of  '  j-yu^ 
them  :  you  are  ardent  in  the  interest  of  his  refor- 
mation, a  self-constituted  preacher  of  righteous- 
ness. That  looks  well.  But  if  it  were  really 
concern  for  the  correction  of  evil  and  the  cure  of 
souls  which  inspired  this  ofi&cious  zeal  of  yours, 
would  it  not  show  itself  first  of  all  in  the  refor- 
mation of  yourself  ?  A  very  little  honest  desire 
to  have  God's  kingdom  come  and  His  will  done 
would  suffice  to  re^'eal  to  yourself  how  much 
more  shameful  and  painful  your  own  moral  dis- 
orders are  than  any  you  propose  to  remedy ;  and 
in  the  hard  task  of  casting  out  your  own  huge 
sins  of  heart,  you  would  find  work  enough  to 
keep  your  hands  full.  The  tu  qiioqiie  rejoinder, 
'  Physician,  heal  thyself,'  is  in  its  place  here.  Luke  iv.  28. 
'  First  cast  out  the  beam.'  This  very  officious-  Ver.  5. 
ness  in  well-doing,  this  arrogant  setting  up  as 
a  corrector  of  morals,  this  immodest  and  loveless 
meddling  with  your  neighbours — what  is  it  but  a 
sign  how  pride  has  made  you  stone-blind,  and  a 
proof  that  it  is  not  the  sympathy  of  a  penitent 
which  inspires  you,  but  the  conceit  of  a  fault-finder? 
What  then  ?  Is  there  to  be  no  mendins^  of 
the  evil  attempted  ?      Must  christian  men  for- 


RELATION  TO 
EVIL. 


108  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      bear  sucli  a  delicate  and  perilous  office  altogether  ? 

FIRST  iSTot  so.  No  man  dare  do  that :  least  of  all  the 
man  who  calls  himself  a  follower  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Only  let  self-correction  have  the  first  place :  first 
in  time,  inasmuch  as  till  the  biggest  of  all  beams 
have  been  cast  out — the  beam  of  ignorant  self- 
conceit,  and  that  uncharitableness  which  goes 
along  with  it — I  can  have  neither  clearness  of  eye 
nor  skill  and  softness  of  touch  to  do  my  brother 
any  real  good ;  but  first  always  in  place,  since, 
however  I  may  busy  myself  with  the  reformation 
of  other  men,  I  must  to  the  very  end  be  still 
more  busy  with  my  own.  If  Christians  were 
more  self-distrustful,  more  penetrated  with  a  con- 
trite longing  after  personal  holiness,  and  more 
rigorous  to  mark  and  to  amend  their  private  fail- 
ings, how  much  less  heart  would  they  have  to 
become  volunteer  fault-finders  or  fault-menders, 
where  they  have  no  business  ;  but  also,  how  much 
more  able  to  see  truly,  and  judge  candidly,  and 
cast  out  with  lowly  tenderness  and  patience,  every 
speck  in  the  character  of  those  with  whose  charac- 
ter it  concerns  them  as  their  brothers  to  meddle  I 
We  should  then  have  a  deal  more  of  quiet,  effec- 
tive, and  kindly  casting  out  of  motes;  but  far 
fewer  of  such  offers  as  this,  spoken  in  blunt 
offensive  fashion,  '  Let  me  pull  it  out ! ' 


Of  Correcting  the  JVorlcVs  Evil.  109 

3.  There  is  still  a  third  way  in  which  good  part  n. 
men  may  err  in  their  efforts  to  do  good.  Only  first 
this  third  error  differs  from  the  other  two  so  far  '  '^xih. 
as  to  form  almost  an  antithesis  to  them.  Beneath 
both  the  mistakes  already  indicated,  that  of  idle 
criticism  n]Don  faults,  and  that  of  self-righteous 
attempts  to  correct  them,  there  lies  an  excessive 
proneness  to  see  evil  in  others,  and  to  condemn  it. 
It  is  possible,  however,  to  fail  on  the  opposite  Ver.  6. 
extreme.  One  may  see  in  other  men  too  little 
evil.  There  are  in  this  world  a  number  of  un- 
happy persons  to  whose  insolent  or  fleshly  minds 
the  most  sacred  things  have  no  sacredness,  and 
the  most  precious  things  no  preciousness ;  and 
there  are  good  souls  who  carry  their  charity  so 
far  that  they  ignore  the  real  character  of  such 
profane  or  sensual  persons,  and  refuse  to  treat 
them  as  if  they  were  as  evil  as  they  are.  In- 
stead of  being  too  ready  to  call  evil,  evil,  and  to 
deal  with  it  accordingly,  these  weak  but  well- 
meaning  Christians  act  as  if  all  men  must  be  good 
enough  at  least  to  esteem  and  reverence  what  is 
good.  They  blunder  with  the  best  intentions  : 
not  throuo-h  want  of  kindliness,  but  throuo-h  de- 
feet  of  wisdom ;  not  from  judging  too  severely, 
but  from  refusing  to  judge  at  all.  The  robust 
good  sense  which  informed  our  perfect   Master 


110  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      saw  that  it  was  necessary  to  recognise  facts.     Let 

FIRST       the  fact  be  frankly  faced,  that  there  are  men  who, 

EviL^       in  their  relations  to  the  kingdom  of  God  and  its 

cf.  PMi.  iii.  2;  sacrcd  blcssings,  are  like  the  homeless,  shameless 

Rbv   xxii   li5 

dogs  of  an  eastern  city,  or  the  foul  and  fierce 

Lev.  xi.  8.  swine  which  it  was  forbidden  to  a  Jew  so  much 
as  to  herd.  In  their  eyes  the  holiest  things  are 
common.     The  sacred  flesh  of  our  christian  table 

1  Cor.  xi.  29.  they  will  eat  without  'discerning  the  Lord's  body.' 
To  their  eartlily  taste,  the  costliest  treasure    of 

Matt.  xiii.  46.  the  Spiritual  life,  though  it  were  the  '  Pearl  of 
great  price/  is  valueless  compared  to  the  swinish 
delights  of  appetite.  It  is  no  breach  of  charity 
to  recognise  the  incapacity  of  such  men  for 
heavenly  truth.  It  is  a  breach  alike  of  prudence 
and  of  reverence  not  to  recognise  it.  You  gain 
nothing  by  treating  a  dog  as  if  it  were  not  a  dog  ; 
and  you  gain  nothing  by  throwing  away  sacred 
privileges  on  men  who  have  shown  that  they 
will  only  abuse  them.  The  law  of  charity,  it  is 
true,  requires  a  generous  treatment  even  of  the 
worst ;  but  charity  itself  must  acknowledge  that 
what  would  be  suitable  and  kindly  behaviour  to 
one  man,  to  another  will  be  simply  mischievous. 

Cf.  Thoiuck,     Q-iye  to  swine  what  swine  can  appreciate — beans, 

ia  lor. 

not  pearls ;  else  the  disappointed  brute,  when  it 
has  trampled  your  offering  in  the  mire,  may  turn 


Of  Correcting  the  WorlcTs  Evil.  Ill 

with  the  rage  of  a  boar  '  and  rend  you.'  If  we  part  n. 
stultify  our  attempts  to  reform  the  vicious  and  first 
brutal  by  plans  which  may  look  charitable,  but  ' '  ^vil! 
are  simply  childish,  winking  at  the  darker  facts 
of  human  character,  we  have  ourselves  to  thank 
for  it,  should  the  indiscreet  missionary  find  his 
intentions  misunderstood  and  his  pains  thrown 
away.  Nor  is  it  only  the  truth  and  its  preacher 
that  suffer;  the  sinner  himself  is  made  worse. 
To  bring  bad  men,  by  ill-judged  methods,  and  at 
ill-chosen  times,  into  contact  with  the  holy 
lessons  of  our  christian  faith,  so  that  the  holy 
is  turned  into  contempt  and  the  precious  re- 
jected with  insolent  profanity,  is  really  to  mis- 
guide our  fallen  brethren  into  a  deeper  guilt,  and 
to  translate  their  profligacy  into  sacrilege.  It  is 
true  that  the  gospel  is  to  be  preached  to  all  men, 
and  that  when  fitly  preached  it  is  the  power  of  Rom.  i.  ic. 
God  to  the  salvation  of  all ;  but  '  a  wise  man's 
heart  discerneth  both  time  and  judgment.'  To  Eccies.  viii.  5. 
select  the  fit  occasion  and  discover  the  wise 
method ;  to  adapt  truth  to  the  evil  state  of  the 
hearer,  and  win  for  it  a  willing  ear;  to  be 
cautious  without  being  timid,  and  faithful  but 
not  indiscreet :  this  asks  for  a  certain  nice  tact 
or  indefinable  instinct  which  is  given  to  few,  a 
wisdom  into  which  there  enter  many  elements, 


112  TliG  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  11.      but  of  which  one  element  surely  is  a  spiritual 
FIRST       gift  from  the  Father  of  lights. 


RELATION  TO 
EVIL. 


Looking  back  now  over  these  directions,  to 
sum  up  their  result,  we  gather,  although  it  is 
from  negatives,  a  pretty  full  concex3tion  of  how 
Christians  ought  to  act  towards  the  world's  sin. 
To  recognise  the  evil  that  is  in  other  men  is  not 
forbidden ;  but  we  are  forbidden  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment on  it,  as  if  we  were  simply  our  brother's 
critics.  The  critical  attitude  in  one  sinful  man 
towards  the  sin  of  others  shows  that  he  forgets 
his  own.  His  judgment  will  probably  be  unfair ; 
it  cannot  fail  to  be  unmerciful.  The  evil,  there- 
fore, which  we  find  ourselves  unable  to  mend,  we 
are  not  called  upon  to  judge.  But  even  our 
efforts  to  mend  evil  must  be  limited,  on  the  one 
side,  by  such  a  modest  and  lowly  charity  as 
springs  from  self-discipline,  and  on  the  other  by 
a  wise  and  reverential  caution.  If  we  set  our- 
selves to  make  other  men  better  without  having 
first  bettered  ourselves,  we  fall  into  hypocritical 
meddling  ;  if  without  the  prudence  which  grows 
from  knowledge  of  evil  and  reverence  for  truth, 
we  become  intemperate  zealots.  For  the  failings 
of  the  weak  we  need  the  tenderness  of  sym- 
pathy ;  for  the  vices  of  the  profane,  the  tender- 


RELATION  TO 
EVIL. 


Of  Correcting  the  World's  Evil.  113 

ness  of  prudence.  Though  the  one  error,  that  of  pakt  ii 
ungenerous  and  meddlesome  fault-finding,  is  very  first 
much  more  common  than  the  second,  being  in- 
deed (as  some  one  says)  'the  sorest  plague  in 
social  life ; '  it  is  worth  remarking  that  both 
faults  are  specially  frequent  in  young  or  inex- 
perienced disciples.  The  new  convert,  having 
just  discovered  the  evil  of  sin  in  himself,  is 
specially  sensitive  to  remark  it  in  others,  and  at 
once  applies  to  it  his  new  and  more  exacting 
standard  of  judgment.  With  a  promptitude  un- 
tempered  by  disappointment,  he  is  forward  to 
censure  older  brethren,  under  the  generous  per- 
suasion that  faults  need  only  to  be  known  in 
order  to  be  corrected.  With  equal  eagerness  he 
expects  that  the  blessed  gospel  truths  which  wear 
for  him  their  first  sanctity  undimmed,  must  at 
once  command  the  homage  of  the  worst  of  men. 
Under  all  this  there  is  much  rawness  of  judgment 
and  ignorance  of  himself  By  and  by,  when  the 
'  dim  perilous'  fight  with  sin  in  his  own  heart 
has  taught  the  Christian,  at  the  cost  of  falls  and 
tears,  how  hard  it  is  to  cast  out  one  '  beam,'  he 
will  grow  more  merciful  to  his  brother,  and  speak 
less  harshly  of  his  errors.  Experience,  too,  in 
attempting  the  recovery  of  the  la'vvless  and  sen- 
sual, is  sure  to  beget  a  salutary  caution,  and  a 

H 


EELATIOX  TO 
EVIL. 


114  The  Eelations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  more  delicate  recognition  of  the  relations  which 
FIRST  the  Yarioiis  parts  of  sacred  truth  bear  to  the 
various  characters  of  men.  Yet  to  the  last  the 
ripest  Christian  and  the  best  practised  will  find 
it  a  task  of  extreme  dilSiculty  to  handle  holy 
themes  with  awe  while  aiming  at  the  conscience 
of  the  profane,  and  will  discover  increasing  cause 
to  wonder  at  the  insensibility,  as  well  as  at  the 
depravity,  of  human  nature. 


OF  ESCAPING  THE  WORLD'S  EVIL. 


115 


Ask,  and  it  shall  he  given  you ;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find ; 
knock,  and  it  shall  he  opened  unto  you:  for  every  one  that 
asketh,  receiveth ;  and  he  that  seeketh,  findeth  ;  and  to  him 
that  knocketh,  it  shall  he  opened.  Or  ivhat  man  is  there  of 
you,  whom,  if  his  son  ask  hread,  will  he  give  him  a  stone  f  Or 
if  he  ask  a  fish,  will  he  give  him  a  serpent  ?  If  ye  then,  heing 
evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much 
more  shall  your  Father  Which  is  in  heaven  give  good  things 
to  them  that  ask  Him  ?  Therefore  all  things  whatsoever  ye 
ivould  that  men  shoidd  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them :  for 
this  is  the  Law  and  ike  Prophets.  Enter  ye  in  at  the  strait 
gate :  for  wide  is  the  gate,  and  hroad  is  the  way,  that  leadeth 
to  destruction,  and  many  there  he  which  go  in  thereat:  hecause 
strait  is  the  gate,  and  imrrow  is  the  ivay,  which  leadeth  unto 
life,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it. — Matt.  vii.  7-14. 

Cf.  Luke  xi.  9-13,  vi.  31,  xiii.  23,  24. 


116 


OF  ESCAPING  THE  WORLD'S  EVIL. 


I 


T  is  at  this  passage  of  our  Lord's  discourse      part  n. 
that  it  becomes  most  difficult  to  trace  with      second 
confidence  the  thread  of  connection;  so  difficult,    '    ^^yjj^ 
that  some  expositors  have   despaired  of  finding 
any  thread  of  connection  at  all.^      If  the  attempt 
I  am  about  to  make  have  any  success,  its  success 
will    best   appear    by    its    preserving    unbroken 
through  these  seemingly  disjointed  sentences  the 
clue  of  thought  which  we  have  hitherto  been  fol- 
lowing. 

In  the  first  six  verses  of  this  chapter,  we  have  Vers.  1-6. 
found  our  Teacher  defininsj  the  attitude  which  His 
disciple  ought  to  hold  who  desires  to  correct  evil 
in  other  men.  The  general  result  of  that  defini- 
tion has  been  decidedly  discouraging.  It  is  a 
%^astly  easier  matter  to  censure  evil  than  to  cor- 
rect it.  The  first  condition  of  correcting  the  evil 
of  others  is  to  have  corrected  it  in  one's  self 
Even  where  the  motives  are  quite  sincere,  it  is  the 
most  delicate  of  all  offices.  On  the  one  side  lies 
a  style  of  fault-finding  which  sins  through  defect 

^  As  Meyer,  for  example. 
117 


118  TJie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

of  charity,  and  on  the  other  such  an  ignoring 
of  faults  as  works  mischief  through  defect  of 
wisdom.  Our  Lord's  directions  how  to  influence 
the  world  for  its  good  have  resolved  themselves 
iDto  nothing  else  but  a  string  of  warnings  against 
mistakes. 

Under  these  circumstances,  one  sees  that  the 
existence  of  evil  in  the  world  around  him  be- 
comes for  every  christian  disciple  an  influential 
— perhaps  the  most  influential — factor  in  his 
own  spiritual  self-discipline.  It  is  not  simply 
the  Christian  who  is  to  act  upon  the  evil  world : 
the  evil  world  will  react  powerfully  upon  the 
Christian.  He  cannot  escape  it,  either  by  fleeing 
from  its  presence  or  by  shutting  his  eyes  to  its 
ofl'ensiveness.  He  must  neither  afi'ect  to  treat 
its  wickedness  as  if  it  were  not  the  thing  it  is, 
nor  presume  to  look  down  on  those  who  do  it 
from  some  superior  judgment-seat,  as  though  he 
had  no  share  in  it.  The  evil  which  is  in  his 
brother  is  in  himself  as  well ;  and  with  that  evil, 
first  in  himself  and  then  in  his  brother,  he  is 
forced  to  deal,  holding  it  for  what  it  is,  and 
seeking  as  best  he  can  to  cast  it  out.  Now,  if 
there  is  anything  about  the  position  of  a  disciple 
in  this  life  fitted  to  act  upon  him  as  a  discipline, 
driving  him  back  upon  a  superhuman  source  of 


RELATION  TO 
EVIL. 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil  119 

strength,  educating  him  in  practical  self-control,      part  ii. 

and  steeling  him  to  an  exceptional  earnestness 

of  temper,  it  is  this  incessant  contact  with  the 

mighty  mass  of  secular  evil  and  the  inevitable 

necessity  of   contending  with  it.      It  is  not  too 

much  to   say   that   Christ   leaves  His   few   and  Cf.  John  xvii. 

.  .    15-19. 

scattered  servants  alone  in  the  world  with  this 
express  design,  that  it  should  become  an  exercise 
ground  for  training  them,  as  nowhere  else  could 
they  be  so  well  trained,  in  those  arduous  virtues 
which  are  distinctively  christian — the  humility 
of  dependence  on  God,  the  nobler  retaliation 
which  gives  good  for  evil,  and  the  intense 
spiritual  resolution  which  dares  to  be  singular 
for  the  sake  of  God. 

Here,  then,  have  we  not  a  key  to  the  three 
exhortations  which  immediately  follow  the  three  Vers.  7-14. 
warnings  of  last  paragraph  ?  (1.)  It  is  not  in 
others  only,  but  in  yourself,  that  the  evil  dwells 
against  which  you  are  bound  to  war;  and  the 
seK-discipline  which  casts  out  your  own  faults 
is  the  sole  condition  of  your  being  fit  to  cor- 
rect a  brother  with  the  humility  of  charity  and 
the  discretion  that  comes  by  experience.  The 
slightest  effort  to  do  good  is  enough  to  teach  a 
man  how  helpless  he  is  in  such  seK-discipline. 
Therefore  you  must  fall  back  upon  a  help  which 


120  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  is  not  within  you,  but  above.  Prayer,  which  is  the 
voice  of  dependence  urged  by  need,  is  the  secret  of 
spiritual  improvement.  Instead  of  judging,  there- 
fore, pray.  Ask  with  importunity,  and  an  urgency 
which  takes  no  denial,  for  the  cleansing  of  your 
own  inward  eye,  for  purity  and  lowliness,  and 
wisdom :  ask  the  Father's  good  gift  of  His  Holy 
Spirit  for  yourself  first,  and  then  for  those 
whose  faults  you  seek  to  mend.  (2.)  Moreover, 
the  continual  presence  of  evil  men  is  a  continual 
provocation  to  the  evil  in  your  own  heart.  It 
brings  with  it  a  temptation  to  retaliate  in  kind, 
to  measure  back  to  others  in  their  own  vessel. 
Be  on  your  guard,  therefore,  and  remember  that 
it  is  not  men's  treatment  of  you,  but  what  your 
own  self-love  would  desire  their  treatment  to  be, 
which  gives  law  to  you.  '  Be  not  overcome  of 
evil,  but  overcome  evil  with  good.'  (3.)  After 
all,  it  is  hard  to  be  so  unlike  your  fellow-men. 
This  evil  world  is  so  vast,  so  mighty,  so  omnipre- 
sent, so  overwhelming^  in  its  rush  after  godless 
delights,  that  it  will  need  a  very  resolute  will 
and  a  rigorous  denial  of  self  to  withstand  the 
sympathy  of  numbers,  and  press  from  the  broad, 
easy,  crowded  road  of  sin  into  that  narrow  path 
of  holy  obedience  which  God  has  fenced  so 
straitly  on  either  hand. 


Of  Escaping  the  WorlcVs  Evil.  121 

Whether  or  not  this  be  the  hidden  connection      part  ii. 
of  thought  betwixt  these  two  sections,  it  may  be      second 

•  1      1  1  -.      o  •       -.      •     P       •    1  1        RELATION  TO 

said  that  we  have  before  us,  m  brief  pithy  words  evil. 
of  exhortation,  three  leading  rules  for  the  conduct 
of  christian  life  as  affected  by  the  evil  world. 
Jesus  has  summed  up  the  posture  which  becomes 
His  follower,  according  to  a  well-known  scheme 
which  distinguishes  our  duty  as  threefold :  bear- 
ing reference  to  God,  to  our  neighbour,  and  to 
ourselves.  As  St.  Paul  did  after  His  example,  so 
he  bids  us,  if  we  would  '  deny '  the  '  ungodliness 
and  worldly  lusts '  in  the  midst  of  which  our  Tit.  ii.  12. 
path  must  lie,  live  godly,  righteous,  and  sober 
lives :  godly,  in  the  dependence  of  faith  on  the 
gifts  of  the  Father ;  righteous,  after  a '  golden  rule ' 
of  generous  neighbourliness ;  and  sober,  with  a 
strict  avoidance  of  the  lawless  latitude  which 
other  men  permit  themselves.  But,  through  all 
these  words  of  exhortation,  I  catch  an  undertone 
of  earnestness,  intense  enouojh  to  be  called  severe, 
as  of  One  Who  felt  that  to  lead  such  a  life  in 
such  a  world  was  no  child's  play  for  the 
strongest,  but  asked  of  him  who  should  succeed 
in  it,  the  strain  of  a  mighty  purpose,  forged  per- 
chance in  some  heat  of  passion,  but  beaten  into 
tenacity  through  the  exigencies  and  endurance 
of  a  lifelong  labour. 


122  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  I,   Such    earnest    urgency    certainly    breafhes 

SECOND  through  His  call  to  prayer.  The  emphatic  re- 
evil!  duplication  of  the  injunction  marks  what  stress 
Vers.  7,  8.  \^q  Speaker  laid  upon  it.  So  does  the  rising 
scale  of  intensity  in  the  words  employed :  ask — 
seek — knock.  To  '  seek '  is  a  more  industrious 
and  solicitous  and  animated  kind  of  asking.  We 
ask  for  what  we  want ;  we  seek  for  that  which 
we  have  lost :  and  this  sense  of  loss  sharpens 
at  once  our  need  and  our  desire.  Again :  to 
'  knock '  is  a  description  of  seeking  at  once  most 
helpless  and  most  importunate ;  since  he  who 
seeks  admission  at  his  friend's  door  has  nothing 
else  to  do  but  go  on  knocking  till  he  be  answered. 
The  asker  will  study  how  best  to  state  his  plea 
when  once  he  gains  a  hearing,  but  may  never  care 
to  seek  another  opportunity.  The  seeker  will 
make,  or  watch  for,  opportunities  of  access  to  the 
patron  whose  favourable  ear  he  hopes  to  gain, 
but,  often  baffled,  may  grow  weary  in  his  efforts. 
The  knocker  must  simply  trust  to  the  force  of 
patience  and  of  repetition,  sure  that  if  he  knock 
loud  enough  he  shall  be  heard,  and,  if  lie  con- 
tinue to  knock  long  enough,  he  must  be  attended 
to.  It  would  be  impossible  to  teach  with  greater 
emphasis  the  idea  that  prayer  is  a  laborious  and 
enduring  exercise  of  the  human  spirit,  to  which 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil  123 

we  need  to  be  moved  by  a  vivid,  unresting,  never-      part  ii. 
ending  experience  of  our  own  need,  and  in  wliicli      second 

.         -,      T  „         ,  .  RELATION  TO 

we  ought  to  be  sustamed  by  a  fixed  certainty        evil. 
that  God  will  hear  us  in  the  end. 

The  subject  of  prayer  fills  a  large  place  in  the 
recorded  teaching  of  our  blessed  Lord ;  and  this 
duty  of  unwearied  perseverance  in  asking  what 
has  been  promised,  but  is  not  at  once  conceded, 
stands  out  as  the  most  characteristic  of  His 
lessons.  On  at  least  two  distinct  and  later 
occasions,  reported  by  St.  Luke,  Jesus  repeated 
the  exhortation  to  continue  praying  until  we 
receive.  On  each  occasion  He  enforced  it  by 
an  analogy,  drawn  once  from  the  private  and 
once  from  the  public  relations  of  men.  The 
householder  who  is  induced  to  rise  from  bed  at  Luke  xi.  5-8. 
an  inconvenient  hour  of  night,  simply  to  be 
rid  of  the  disturbance  caused  by  his  neighbour's 
persistent  knocking,  and  the  judge  who  takes  up 
the  cause  of  a  poor  widow  only  when  her  'con-  Lukexviii.i-s. 
tinual  coming'  has  worried  him  into  reluctant 
compliance,  are  parallels  which  stand  of  course 
in  flagrant  contrast  to  God's  treatment  of  our 
petitions,  so  far  as  the  motives  go  which  ulti- 
mately lead  to  a  favourable  hearing;  but  they 
agree  at  least  in  this  point,  that  it  is  perseverance 
in  asking  which  wins  the  day.     Nay,  this  con- 


124  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

I'AKT  II.      trast,  which  at  first  sight  shocks  us,  betwixt  the 
SECOND      disinclination  of  a  lazy  neighbour  to  oblige,  or  of 

K ELATION  TO  .  i        •  •  i  i         •  , 

EVIL.  a  corrupt  magistrate  to  do  justice  where  he  is  not 
bribed  to  do  it,  and  the  infinite  readiness  of  our 
heavenly  Father's  love,  is  actually  fitted,  or  per- 
haps designed,  to  strengthen  the  argument  for 
importunity.  For  if,  even  on  the  low  ground  of 
selfishness,  perseverance  prevails  over  the  un- 
willing, how  much  more  certain  is  it  to  prevail 
with  Him  Whose  generosity  needs  no  spur,  but 
waits  only  for  a  call  to  bless  ! 

The  argument  a  fortiori,  which  in  these  later 
parables  is  pushed  to  such  an  extreme  as  almost 
to  run  some  risk  of  misconception,  appears  also 
in  the  text ;  but  here  it  appears  under  a  different 
connection,  and  in  a  form  which  effectually  shuts 
out  misconception.  Instead  of  building  on  those 
infirmities  of  human  nature,  which  allow  of  its 
being  pestered  into  compliance  even  when  better 
motives  fail,  our  Lord  builds  here  on  that  which 
is  the  very  best  thing  left  in  our  ruined  human 
nature — the  divine  instinct  of  parenthood.  The 
tie  of  parent  to  child,  with  the  sweet  confiding 
and  obedient  dependence  which  marks  it  on  the 
one  side,  and  the  generous  capacity  for  self-devo- 
tion which  is  its  glory  on  the  other,  is  our  chief 
earthly  emblem  for  that  most  sacred  and  tender 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil.  125 

of  all  conceivable  bonds,  the  bond  wliicli  links      part  h. 
the   Eternal  Father   above   to   the   soul   of   His      .second 

RELATION  TO 

redeemed  human  creature.      On  this  analogy  our        evil. 
Lord's  whole  teaching,  like  His  whole  life,  hung 
suspended  ;  and   throucrhout  this  Sermon   it  has  ^f-  7-  9, 1^,  45, 

^  '  ^  _  VI.  1,  9,  2b,  M. 

run  in  and  out  like  a  thread  of  silver,  uniting 
while  it  lights  up  the  whole.  But  the  appeal  to 
our  emblematic  human  fatherhood,  which  under- 
lies so  many  passages,  and  glances  forth  here  and 
there  in  momentary  allusions,  comes  at  this  point 
quite  plainly  to  the  surface.  It  is  when  we  are 
petitioners  for  the  gifts  of  God  that  we  take  most 
unmistakeably  the  attitudes  of  children,  and  may 
most  confidently  expect  Him  to  meet  us  with  the 
welcome  of  a  parent.  Sometimes  men  ask  from 
men,  but  commonly  with  more  or  less  of  that 
reluctance  which  springs  from  the  pride  of 
equality  :  children  ask  always  from  their  parents, 
and  feel  no  shame.  Sometimes  men  give  to  men, 
but  often  from  baser  motives  than  generosity,  or 
in  hope  to  receive  as  much,  or  with  the  secret 
pride  of  having  laid  an  equal  under  obligation : 
parents  give  always  to  their  children,  and,  through 
the  purity  of  their  love,  feel  no  pride.  In  no 
other  relation  which  we  know  is  so  much  asked 
or  given ;  asked  with  such  frank  confidence,  or 
given  with  such  ungrudging  readiness.     It  is,  in 


126  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II,  fact,  the  badge  of  childhood  and  its  privilege — 
SECOND  to  ask  and  get ;  the  joy  of  parents  and  their 
EVIL.  honour — to  be  asked  and  give.  Can  we  be  the 
children  of  God,  and  not  use  the  privilege  of  our 
peculiar  position  to  ask  Him  for  the  things  we 
need  ?  Or  shall  we  have  leave  to  use  our  privilege 
of  asking,  and  yet  find  that  He  denies  Himself 
on  His  part  the  joy  of  giving  ? 

This  'example  and  shadow  of  heavenly  things' 
which  is  offered  to  our  study  in  every  well- 
ordered  family  on  earth  is  more  than  an  analogy, 
it  is  an  argument ;  and  it  might  conceivably 
have  been  employed  by  our  Lord  to  enforce  His 
urgent  call  in  the  previous  sentence  to  impor- 
tunity in  prayer.  For  it  surely  belongs  to  the 
fatherliness  of  God  that  He  will  not  leave  His 
child  to  cry  on  for  ever  without  an  answer.  Our 
Lord's  distinct  assurance,  therefore,  given  in  words 
which  recapitulate  His  first  promise  in  order  to 
individualize  it,  that  '  every  one '  who  asks  and 
seeks  and  knocks  shall  in  the  end  be  listened  to, 
might  very  well  have  been  made  to  rest  on  the 
fact  that  He  to  Whom  we  pray  is  no  slothful 
neighbour  or  unrighteous  judge,  but  our  own 
Father.  Only  the  cry  of  a  child  hardly  needs  to 
be  repeated  in  order  to  reach  its  parent's  heart. 
On    the    contrary,   the   infirmity   of   parenthood 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil.  127 

leans  rather  to  indulgence  than  to  refusal.  So  part  ii. 
far  from  leaving  the  child  to  wail  on  unheeded  in  second 
its  hunger  or  pain,  the  weak  heart  of  earthly  ^^^^^ 
fathers  is  only  too  easily  moved  by  the  impatient 
or  foolish  clamour  of  childhood  to  grant  requests 
which  are  no  boons,  and  give  what  were  better 
withheld.  Accordingly,  the  parable  is  made  to 
yield  a  different  lesson.  It  is  not  the  certainty 
that  parents  will  attend  at  last  to  the  plaintive 
and  repeated  cry  of  little  ones  which  is  made  to 
testify  of  God ;  for  so  much  may  well  be  taken 
for  granted.  It  is  rather  the  wisdom  of  parents 
in  knowing  what  to  give  and  what  to  withhold, 
on  which  our  thoughts  are  now  fastened.  Eeady 
enough — and  sometimes  too  ready — to  give,  the 
father  is  still  wise  enough  also  to  give  on  the 
whole  with  discrimination.  '  Ye  know  how  to  ver.  ii. 
give  good  gifts  : '  that  is  the  point  of  the  lesson. 
The  round  white  stone  may  have  some  slight  resem- 
blance to  a  cake  of  bread  ;  and  snakes  as  well  as 
fishes  have  cold  and  glistening  scales.^  But  love 
is  too  careful  to  be  deceived,  and  too  kind  to 
deceive.  It  will  neither  give  at  haphazard  and 
by  mistake  what  may  prove  useless  or  hurtful, 

^  On  the  occasion  in  Luke  (xi.  12)  a  third  example  is  added, 
that  of  the  Qgg  and  scorpion.  Here  the  idea  of  a  superficial 
deceptive  resemblance  must  apparently  be  abandoned.  See 
Thomson,  Land  and  Book  (p.  246,  London  ed.).    ' 


128  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  nor  will  it  deliberately  mock  the  hunger  of  its 
SECOND  child  by  offering  apparent  blessings  for  real  ones. 
evil!  So  far  from  that,  it  will  not  even  humour  the 
mistaken  longings  of  the  child  himself.  For  if 
the  foolish  infant,  misled  by  appearances,  should 
cry  for  a  stone  instead  of  bread,  or  take  the 
glittering  adder  for  a  wholesome  fish,  even  human 
parental  love  is  wise  enough  to  deny  the  prayer, 
that  asks  amiss,  and,  reading  behind  such  childish 
words  the  child's  true  need,  will  refuse  the  evil 
to  bestow  the  good.  Men  are  at  their  best  bad 
(according  to  the  witness  of  this  Man,  Who,  with 
an  involuntary  consciousness  of  His  own  moral 
isolation,  holds  Himself  strangely  aloof  while  He 
addresses  all  other  men  as  '  ye  who  are  evil ') ; 
and  from  the  fatherliness  of  even  the  best  of 
bad  men  to  the  fatherliness  of  Him  Who  alone 
Matt.  xix.  17.  is  '  good '  is  a  long  inference.  But  the  worst 
of  fathers,  as  well  as  the  best,  are  fathers  still. 
AVe  credit  even  the  most  ignorant  or  negligent 
of  parents  with  sufficient  love,  not  merely  to 
hearken  when  his  child  calls,  but  also  to  inter- 
pret inarticulate  cries,  to  anticipate  unspoken 
wants,  to  correct  mistaken  requests,  to  refuse 
what  is  asked  in  folly,  and  generally  to  know  how 
to  give  gifts  that  are  truly  '  good.'  Even  in  the 
wreck  of  our  race,  where  humanity,  starved  and 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil  129 

savage,  has  become  most  thorouglily  ^  evil/  we  part  n. 
still  look  to  see  so  much  of  this  parental  love  and  second 
wisdom  shining  in  the  darkest  place ;  or,  if  we  fail  '  evil. 
to  find  it,  our  sense  is  shocked  as  by  something  Cf.  isa.  xiix.  15. 
monstrous  in  nature.  Can  we  measure,  then, 
the  force  of  our  Lord's  '  How  much  more ! '  ^^er.  ii. 
or  estimate  the  contrast  which  so  glorious  an  a 
fortiori  implies  betwixt  this  feeble  spark  of  father- 
hood which  He  has  been  at  pains  to  spare,  in 
order  that,  amid  the  evil  earth,  it  miojht  still 
glimmer  forth  some  pale  witness  to  Himself,  and 
that  fulness  of  unexhausted  paternity,  of  infinite 
tenderness  led  by  unsearchable  wisdom,  which 
dwells  within  the  bosom  of  the  Heavenly  Father  ? 
Here,  in  these  simple,  homely,  human  words 
of  Jesus,  we  have  surely  all  the  philosophy  of 
prayer  which  christian  hearts  require.  They  are 
the  words  of  One  Whose  own  history  gave  the 
example  which  elucidates  the  precept.  It  was 
a  Son's  life  which  He  brought  down  to  earth 
from  the  unseen  heaven :  and  the  voice  of  His 
human  son  ship  to  God  was  prayer.  Prayers  like 
His  are  impossible  to  one  who  is  not,  like  Him, 
a  child  of  God;  to  any  one  who  is,  they  are 
simply  unavoidable.  Whatever  He  felt  Himself 
in  want  of,  He  asked ;  for  the  simple  reason  that 
His  life  as  a  Son  had  its  root  in  the  life  of  the 
I 


130  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  Father,  was  fed  from  the  spiritual  and  temporal 

SECOND  supplies   of  the  ■  Father,  and  looked  up  to  that 

EviL^  Parent  to  do  a  parent's  service.      When  He  asked 

Matt.  xxvi.  once  and  was  not  answered,  He  asked  ac^ain,  and 

.S9-44,andpar.  ^ 

John  xi.  42.  jct  again ;  just  because  He  was  sure  the  Father, 
being  a  father,  must  hear.  A  good  son  can 
afford  to  wait  a  good  father's  time.  Whatever 
desire  pressed  upon  His  heart,  He  uttered  in  a 
petition,  even  though  through  a  child's  infirmity 

John  xii.  27.  the  Cry  pressed  out  by  anguish  might  be  a  mis- 
taken one,  asking  what  was  less  good  than  the 
best ;  for  He  could  trust  His  Father  with  wisdom 
enough  to  discern,  and  love  enouojh  to  bestow, 
only  the  best  gifts.  Therefore,  to  all  such  re- 
quests as  expressed  the  longing  of  mere  earthly 
infirmity^ — infirmity  without  sin — He  added  the 

Matt.  xxvi.  39.  modcst  and  dutiful  '  nevertheless  '  of  a  little 
child.  It  is  not  given  to  children  always  to 
know  stones  from  bread,  and  no  father  would 
prohibit  or  chide  the  frank  utterance  of  whatever 
his  child  desires  ;  but  it  is  given  to  true  children 
to  know  that  they  are  but  children,  and  to  ask 
with  deferential  '  fear,'  reckoning  their  petitions 
to   be   only  petitions,  not  demands.      Such  chil- 

Heb.  V.  7 ;  cf.  dren,  like  Jesus,  will  be  heard  in  that  they  fear ; 

2  Cor.  xii.  8, 9.  '    .„  .'  ,  ,  ,  .    , 

and  will  get,  if  not  what  they  ask,  yet  certamly 
what  they  want.     For  all  genuine  intercourse  be- 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil  131 

twixt   child   and   parent   must   have  two  sides :      part  n. 
while  it  is  on  the  child's  side  the  freest  and  most      second 
unlimited  expression  of  such  things  as  a  child's    ' '  ^vil. 
heart  can  long  for,  or  a  child's  judgment  discern 
to  be   good,  it  is   on  the   parent's   side  also  the 
freest  and  most  voluntary  determination  to  give 
only  what   a  riper  judgment  knows  to  be  best, 
and  all  that  a  larger  heart  yearns  to  bestow. 

The  truth  is,  this  filial  spirit  in  prayer  is  impos- 
sible unless  the  petitioner  have  the  most  ample 
leave  to  say  to  his  Father  everything,  wise  or  foolish, 
which  he  desires  to  say;  to  ask  for  everything, 
good  or  not  so  good,  which  he  desires  to  have. 
The  idea  of  arbitrary  limitation  from  without 
contradicts  the  filial  relation.  At  the  same  time, 
the  intelligence  or  modesty  of  the  child  himself, 
his  acquaintance  with  his  Father's  purposes,  and 
his  own  judgment  of  what  is  either  possible  or 
desirable,  will  always  determine  the  limitations 
which  he  himself  will  impose  upon  his  own 
petitions.  Bequests  which  are  possible  to  one 
of  the  family  may  thus  be  impossible  to  another, 
or  needless  to  a  third.  He  who  has  penetrated 
furthest  into  the  mind  of  the  Father,  will  of  course 
ask  most  nearly  what  the  Father  is  prepared  to 
grant.  But  though  such  a  wise  son  will  offer  his 
petition  with  less  hesitation  than  another,  or  with 


132  TJic  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      greater  confidence  that  he  will  get  the  very  thing 
SECOND      he  asks  for,  yet  he  need  not  be  one  whit  more 

RELATIOX  TO  _  ^  -  -  .  i  i  i       •  /> 

EVIL.  conndent  than  the  most  ignorant  or  blundermg  of 
his  brothers,  that  whatever  is  best  for  him  will 
be  the  answer  of  the  Father.  Eather,  a  child 
may  trust  the  Parent's  wisdom  most,  precisely 
where  it  can  trust  its  own  the  least ;  and  be  exer- 
cising the  noblest  and  most  heroic  faith,  faith 
which  honours  and  pleases  the  Father  best,  when 
it  dares  ask  for  nothing,  but  has  this  for  its  only 

Mark  xiv.  3G.  cry,  mixcd  with  tears  and  sobs :  '  Not  what  I  will, 
but  what  Thou  wilt.' 

The  '  o'ood  thino-s '  which  Jesus  declares  His 
Father  ready  to  give  '  to  them  that  ask  Him '  are 
not  to  be  narrowed  down  to  any  single  department 
of  a  Christian's  life.  They  must  be  taken  to 
cover  an  area  as  wide  and  varied  as  the  wants 
which  God's  children  have  to  tell  to  their  Father. 

Luke  xi.  13.  In  that  passage  of  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  however, 
where  Jesus  repeats  these  sentences  almost  ver- 
hatim  upon  a  subsequent  occasion,  He  substitutes 
for  these  '  good  things '  the  one  comprehensive 
and  magnificent  gift  of  '  the  Holy  Spirit.'  Within 
the  new   kingdom  of  our  Father,  this  personal 

Acts  i.  4,  ii.  coming  of  the  Third  Person  as  the  gift  promised 
by  the  Father  and  conferred  through  the  Son, 
covers  all  spiritual  '  good  things,'  so  as  fully  to 


Of  Escarping  the  World's  Evil.  133 

satisfy  every  spiritual  desire  of  tlie   filial  heart :      part  ii. 
since  what  we  earthly  sons  of  God  are  now^  taught      second 

,       .  .  ,  .  T    .  1    •  i        1         RELATION  TO 

to  desire  is  summed  up  m  this  one  thing,  to  be        evil. 
made  like  Him  Who  is  the,  type  of  sonship  and  Eom.  viii.  29. 
perfect  image  of  our  Father  ;  and  this  desire  must 
find  its  fulfilment,  if  the  same  Spirit  Who  inspired  lUd.  e-i5. 
the  sonship  of  Jesus,  and  wrought  in  Him  the 
ima^^je  of  God,  be  Gfiven  to  dwell  also  in  us,  and 
work    within    us    the    same    character.       Wliile 
therefore   temporal    blessings   are   not   excluded, 
but  included,  the  immediate  design  and  emphasis 
of  the  passage  is  to  throw  us  back  upon  God  as 
petitioners  for  such  spiritual  gifts  as  belong  to 
character.      To   this   also    the    connection    leads. 
This  injunction  to  pray  does  not  follow  at  once 
upon  the  warning  against  amassing  secular  wealth,  ch.  \i.  19-34. 
and  the  dissuasives  from  secular  care.     It  follow^s 
those  verses  in  which  the  Lord  has  pointed  out  Ch.  vii.  1-6. 
the  duties  of  a  disciple  to  the  sin  that  is  in  the 
world.     The  '  good  things,'  therefore,  which  imme- 
diately and  in  the  first  instance  He  bids  us  ask 
for,  are  such  as  these :   spiritual  skill  to  discern 
the  evil  and  the  good ;  reverence  enough  not  to 
expose  sacred  things  to  contempt ;  a  purged  and 
clear  eye  to  correct  men's  sins  with  ;  a  large  mea- 
sure of  charity ;  the  humility  of  self-knowledge, 
and  the  tenderness  which  grows  from  self-amend- 


134  The  Rdations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  ment.  It  may  well  be  that  Jesus  means  to  cast 
SECOND  His  eye  back  over  a  still  larger  tract  of  His  fore- 
EviL.  going  discourse,  and  bids  us  beg  God  for  such 
'good  tilings'  as  a  trustful,  contented  temper,  a 
heart  set  on  heavenly  treasures,  a  sincere  regard 
to  God  in  secret,  and  that  divine  righteousness 
which  keeps  the  law  in  its  spirit,  and  is  all  com- 
pact of  love  itself.  The  whole  sum,  indeed, 
of  that  perfection  to  which  our  King  has  been 
calling  His  followers  throughout  the  legislative 
sections  of  this  inaugural  Sermon  is  to  be  asked 
as  a  gift  from  our  Father  in  heaven ;  for  if  we 
could  not  ask  it  and  receive  it  as  a  gift  wrought 
in  us  for  Jesus'  sake  by  His  Holy  Spirit,  then 
Jesus  would  be  no  King  of  Salvation,  but  only 
a  lefjislator  more  exactim?  than  Moses,  and  His 
gospel  no  tidings  of  gladness,  but  a  yoke  more 
intolerable  than  the  law.  Commonly,  however, 
it  is  the  impact  of  his  new-born  zeal  against  the 
rouo-h  edse  of  sin  which  first  teaches  the  christian 
convert  his  need  of  a  divine  strength.  All  things 
seem  possible  to  the  enthusiasm  of  a  young  dis- 
ciple, till  he  tries.  But  whenever  a  christian 
man  begins  to  take  up  in  earnest  the  task  of  re- 
forming the  evil  around  him,  and  of  doing  it  in 
the  right  way,  he  is  presently  forced  to  his  knees. 
He  who  would  touch  other  men's  sins  with  gentle. 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil.  135 

wise,  or  lowly  love,  must  first  look  well  to  his      part  ii. 
personal  sinfulness  ;  and  tlie  honest  effort  to  have      second 

1   •  n       -1  .11-1,  1  EELATION  TO 

his  own  faults  cast  out  and  his  heart  made  pure,  evil. 
will  open  up  to  him  the  breadth  of  Christ's 
gospel  law  of  holiness,  and  teach  him  how  it 
embraces  every  detail  of  life,  penetrates  our  secret 
motives,  and  summons  us  to  a  purity,  truthfulness, 
and  charity  which  are  to  be  perfect  with  the  per-  Cf.  v.  48. 
fections  of  God.  Actual  contact  with  evil  after 
Christ's  own  manner,  actual  efforts  to  be  good 
enough  to  do  any  good  in  an  evil  earth,  will 
always  drive  home  such  a  discouraging  conviction 
of  helplessness ;  and  it  is  when  His  honest  fol- 
lower is  in  this  baffled,  resourceless  mood,  facing 
sin  as  a  fact  which  he  can  neither  expel  from  his 
own  nor  from  other  men's  lives,  that  Jesus  takes 
him  as  it  were  by  the  hand,  and  with  eyes 
devoutly  lifted  to  the  Father,  says  to  him,  '  Let 
us  pray.' 

I  suppose  the  frequency  or  strength  of  a  Chris- 
tian's impulse  to  cry  for  spiritual  help  may  thus 
be  taken  as  a  safe  gauge  of  the  thoroughness  with 
which  he  has  entered  on  the  Lord's  battle  against 
sin.  Nor  will  any  experienced  combatant  in  this 
moral  war  be  at  a  loss  to  recognise  the  reason  why 
Christ's  words  take  at  this  point  a  certain  terse 
sharpness  as  of  a  battle-cry,  or  why  He  is  fain  to 


136  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      reiterate  with  growing  urgency  His  call  to  prayer, 
SECOND      or  why  He  asseverates  His  assurance  some  six 
EVIL.        times  over  that  the  help  will  surely  come.     For 
this  contest  with  sin,  inside  and  outside  of  chris- 
tian life,  is  a  sore,  tedious,  baffling,  wearing-out 
sort  of  contest,  in  which  one  is  so  often  beaten 
that  nothing  save  the  sharpest  need  could  prevail 
upon  one  not  to  give  over  praying  in  despair. 
But  to  give  over  praying  means  giving  over  fight- 
ing ;  and  to  give  over  fighting  means  giving  over 
Eccies.  viii.  8.   Christ.     '  There  is  no  discharge  in  this  war,'  any 
more  than  in  our  war  with  death.     The  loncrer  it 

o 

goes  on,  the  hotter  it  waxes.  Asking  for  the 
Spirit  of  Help  must  grow  into  an  anxious  seeking 
for  Him ;  and  seeking  without  finding  may  give 
place  to  a  persistent  day-after-day  knocking  with 
the  same  knock  at  Heaven's  gate  for  the  aid  which 
delays  to  come.  And  still  our  need  of  our  Father's 
gifts  goads  us  to  beg  again  for  them ;  and  still  the 
faint  heart  rouses  itself  once  more  at  the  urgent 
iteration  of  its  King :  '  Every  one  that  asketh, 
receiveth ;  and  he  that  seeketh,  findeth ;  and  to 
him  that  knocketh,  it  shall  be  opened.' 

At  last,  oh  at  last,  when  this  lifelong  disci- 
pline of  need  and  longing  and  trust  and  patience 
2i.  Ja?.  i.  2-5.  and  importunity  has  done  its  slow  but  perfect 
work,  and  tempered  the  disciple  into  the  temper 


Of  Escaping  the  Worlds  Evil.  137 

desired  of  God,  then  the  answer,  which  has  been      part  ii. 
comin^  unperceived  and  in  disguised  shapes  all      second 

.    .  RELATION  TO 

along,  bursts  in  one  day  of  joy  upon  the  petitioner.  evil. 
The  full  gift  of  the  Father's  Spirit,  so  long  asked 
for,  is  given ;  the  victory  over  sin,  so  long  sought 
for,  is  found  of  a  sudden ;  the  gate  of  righteous- 
ness, knocked  at  so  perseveringly,  opens  to  the 
waiting  feet :  and  another  pure-hearted  son  of 
God,  bricrht  with  the  imao-e  of  his  Father,  and 
made  like  unto  the  Christ,  enters  the  radiant  city 
of  the  crowned  and  perfected  ! 

II.  Many  who  care  little  for  other  portions  of  Ver.  12. 
our  Lord's  teaching  are  fond  of  quoting  the  pithy 
portable  rule  about  neighbourly  conduct  between 
man  and  man  which  follows  on  His  persuasive  to 
prayer.  Unlike  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the 
gospel,  this  appears  to  lie  level  to  the  moral  per- 
ceptions of  even  worldly-hearted  persons;  it  affords 
them  a  handy  test  by  which  to  expose  practical 
inconsistencies  in  the  relic^ious  ;  and,  as  we  are 
all  ready  to  select  from  Scripture  those  parts 
which  please  us  best,  so  you  find  this  to  be  a 
favourite  text  with  people  who  hardly  pretend  to 
be  devout  or  spiritual,  but  flatter  themselves  that 
they  do  better  to  stick  to  such  homely  week-day 
duties  as  every  one  can  understand.     Hence  this 


138  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      has  come  to  be  popularly  looked  upon  as  the  very 
SECOND      key  to  the  ethics  of  Christ,  the  most  original  and 

RELATION  TO       ,  ,        -    ,-  •  n    tt        ^ 

EVIL.  characteristic  maxim  oi  His  law :  an  exaggera- 
tion which  has  naturally  provoked  equally  unfair 
efforts  on  the  other  side  to  depreciate  both  the 
value  and  the  originality  of  this  so-called  '  golden 
rule.'  The  abruptness  also  of  its  introduction,  its 
apparent  want  of  relation  to  the  sentences  which 
here  precede  and  follow  it,  and  the  fact  that  in 
Cf.  Lukevi.3i.  St.  Luke's  report  it  is  introduced  at  a  much 
earlier  passage  of  the  Sermon,  have  cast  some 
doubts  upon  the  place  which  really  belongs  to  it 
in  Jesus'  exposition  of  His  Kingdom. 

First,  then,  as  to  its  connection  with  the  fore- 
goinsf.  A  sentence  introduced  with  the  word 
'  therefore '  naturally  points  us  to  the  immediately 
preceding  passage  for  its  ground.  The  imme- 
diately preceding  passage  has  enforced  with  all 
possible  urgency  the  duty  of  believing  and  per- 
severing prayer,  on  the  ground  that  God,  as  our 
heavenly  Father,  will  certainly  bestow  every 
'  crood  gift '  which  His  children  need.  It  seems 
an  obvious  enough  inference,  that  because  God  is 
ever  ready  to  hear  and  help  us  when  we  call, 
'  therefore '  the  most  difficult  duties  of  unselfish 
brother-love  to  men  become  possible  for  us.  This 
rule  of  doing  to  others  as  we  should  like  them  to 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  EmJ.  139 

do  to  us,  is  evidently  meant  to  be  a  convenient      par^ii. 
short-hand  expression  for  all  the  relative  duties       second 

^  RELATION  TO 

of  society.  So  much  is  plain  from  the  words :  evil. 
'  This  is  the  law  and  the  prophets.'  It  is  a  sum- 
mary, therefore,  of  whatever  our  Lord  has  taught 
throughout  this  whole  discourse  respecting  that 
righteousness  of  perfect  love  betwixt  man  and 
man,  which  exceeds  the  righteousness  of  Hebrew 
scribe  or  Pharisee.  Possibly  even  the  form  of 
this  phrase, '  the  law  and  the  prophets,'  may  allude  See  v.  17. 
to  the  similar  language  with  which  He  had  begun 
His  exposition  of  christian  righteousness,  near  the 
outset  of  His  discourse.  But  we  do  not  need  on 
that  account  to  stretch  the  reference  of  His  '  there-  As  Meyer,  cgr., 
fore'  so  far  back.  The  whole  of  this  lofty 
righteousness  to  which  Jesus  has  been  binding 
His  disciples,  with  its  spirit  of  love  and  its  god- 
like perfectness  of  motive,  becomes  what  it  never 
was  before,  a  possible,  attainable  thing,  even  for 
'  evil '  men,  so  soon  as  we  firmly  grasp  the  power  Ver.  11. 
of  persevering  petition,  or  the  hold  which  Christ, 
the  Pieconciler  of  His  brethren,  gives  to  us  as 
God's  children  over  our  great  Parent's  heart.  He 
who  knows  the  Father  as  this  Son  has  now  dis- 
covered Him,  and  has  leave  to  ask  confidently  for 
every  good  and  needful  gift,  need  not  despair  of 
keeping  even  this  law.     For  it  is  thus  that  '  the 


140  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  ir.      rigliteousness  of  the  law '  comes  to  be  '  fulfilled 
SECOND      in  us  who  walk  no   longer  after  the  flesh,  but 

RELATION  TO 

EVIL.  after '  that  Holy  '  Spirit '  Whom  the  Father  gives 
cf.iioin.viii.4.  ^Q  jj-g  recovered  children.  In  vain,  therefore, 
shall  any  still  unreconciled  and  unregenerate 
reader  of  this  divine  discourse  wrench  this  'golden 
rule'  of  neighbourliness  out  of  its  vital  connection 
with  the  new  relation  in  which  Christ  sets  men 
to  God,  and  with  the  inner  life  of  prayer,  and  with 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  vain  shall  it  be 
cited  as  a  dislocated  moral  maxim,  such  as  might 
have  dropped  from  a  Hebrew  or  a  Pagan  teacher: 
for  then,  cut  off  from  the  spirit  of  christian  life 
and  the  childlike  fellowship  of  the  redeemed  with 
their  Father,  its  strength  goes  from  it ;  it  becomes 
cf.  Judg.  xvi.  weak  like  any  other  lovely  but  dead  word  of 
the  moralists,  a  word  to  be  admired  but  never 
practised. 

So  also  of  the  originality  of  this  '  golden  rule.' 
Expressed  in  a  negative  form:  'Do  not  to  another 
what  you  dislike  when  done  to  yourself,'  it  is  far 
from  original.  We  find  it  in  the  Jewish  Apo- 
crypha; we  find  it  among  the  sayings  of  the 
Kabbis ;  we  find  it,  as  Gibbon  reminds  us  with  a 
sneer,  in  a  Greek  moralist  '  four  hundred  years 
before  the  publication  of  the  gospel.'  ^     It  is  true 

1  See  Tobit  iv.  16  :   *  Do  that  to  no  man  which  thou  hatest ' 


17. 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil  141 

that  this  negative  form  of  the  rule  falls  immensely      part  ii. 
beneath  the  positive  ;  since  it  is,  of  course,  a  vastly      second 

1    •     T  on  f.        1         •  1  •     ^  ^  RELATION  TO 

higher  effort  of  charity  to  do  to  our  neighbour  evil. 
every  possible  act  of  kindness,  than  simply  to 
abstain  from  any  express  act  of  injury.  But 
though  this  positive  reading  of  the  maxim  by  our 
Lord  is  (so  far  as  I  know)  original  in  its  form, 
yet  it  is,  after  all,  nothing  else  but  a  new  way  of 
putting  the  very  old  command  in  which  the 
Mosaic  law  had  summed  up  its  second  table : 
'  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself      If  Lev.  xix.  18. 

See  Laws  of 

I  put  my  neighbour   and   myself  on  the    same  the  Kingdom, 

level  of  affection — God  only  being  raised  above 

it — then   I   shall  not  wish  more  good  to  myself 

than  I  w^ish  to  him ;  that  is  to  say,  I  shall  not 

expect  him  to  do   for  me  any  Idndness  which  I 

am  not  equally  prepared  to  do  for  him  in  like 

circumstances.       This  is  just   our   '  golden  rule.' 

The  fact  is,  Jesus  never  claimed  originality  for 

any  part  of  His  moral  teaching,  but  was  always 

at  pains  to  indicate  how,  substantially,  it  all  lay 

in    gremio    within    the    envelope    of    the    older 

economy,  and  needed  only  to  be  unfolded  in  the 

spirit  of  it  in  order  to  blossom  into  the  full  and 

(cf.  Eccliis.  xxxi.  15)  ;  cited  as  a  saying  of  EabM  Hillel  by 
the  Talmud,  as  Wetstein  and  other  commentators  note.  The 
Greek  parallel  from  Isocrates  is  quoted  by  Gibbon  in  Decline 
and  Fall  (eh.  54,  note  36). 


142  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      perfect  loveliness  of  New  Testament  ethics.    What 
SECOND       was  absolutely  original  in  the  gospel  and  is  to 

RELATION  TO    ,^   .         -,  •        n      i       •  i       ,       -,  r^ 

KviL.        this  day  unrivalled,  is,  that  it   professes  to  set 
sinful  men  into  such  a  new  relation  to  God,  that 
they  can  draw  down  from  Him  by  devout  acts  of 
desire  a  divine  influence  potent  enough  to  fulfil 
within  them  that  ethical   and   spiritual  ideal  of 
human  duty,  which  all  ancient  codes  more  or  less 
recognised,   but   utterly   failed   to    realize.      The 
morals    of    Christianity  are  the   least   novel    or 
characteristic   portion  of   its    teaching:    yet  we 
cannot  say  they  are  its  least  important.      You  do 
not  speak  of  degrees  of  importance   among  the 
parts  of  a  tree.     The  root  exists  for  the  sake  of 
the   flower   and   seed ;   but   flower  and   seed   do 
not   come   without  the  root.      The  doctrines   of 
the  christian  gospel  are  that  root  out  of  which 
christian  graces  bloom  and   christian   fruits   are 
scattered  over   the   waste   lands ;    but   it   is   no 
less  thankless  than  foolish  work  to  cut  the  tree 
asunder. 

What,  then,  in  the  last  place,  is  the  design 
with  which,  at  the  present  stage  of  His  discourse, 
Jesus  has  introduced  this  resume  of  brotherly 
love  ?  Only,  as  I  think,  for  a  handy  defence 
against  that  unbrotherly  style  of  retaliation  into 
which  contact  with  the  world's  evil  is  so  apt  to 


Of  Escarping  the  World's  Evil.  143 

betray  His  disciples.  It  is  tlie  Christian  in  his  part  n. 
inevitable  contest  with  an  enveloping  society  second 
of  unchristian  and  wicked  men,  whom  throughout  '  ^vil. 
this  section  our  Saviour  appears  to  have  in  view. 
His  words  take  the  form  of  plain  practical  hints, 
how  he  who  would  overcome  evil,  instead  of  being 
overcome  by  it,  must  behave  himself  The  funda- 
mental rule  is  to  live  by  prayer :  to  fall  back  on  Vers.  7-11. 
divine  help  :  to  keep  open  that  secret  avenue  of 
access  to  the  unseen  Father,  which  is  like  the 
communication  of  a  general,  hardly  beset,  with 
his  source  of  supplies.  But  just  because  the 
disciple  has  such  stores  of  supernatural  aid  within 
reach,  is  it  practicable  for  him  to  retaliate  upon 
the  world's  evil,  not  with  evil,  but  with  good.  If 
the  Christian  suffer  his  behaviour  towards  bad 
men  to  become  a  reflection  of  their  behaviour 
towards  him — if  he  does  to  others  what  they  do 
to  him — he  forfeits  his  superior  and  exceptional 
character  as  a  child  of  God.  So  far  from  assimi- 
lating the  world  to  himself,  he  will  grow  assimi- 
lated to  it.  This  is  always  a  near  and  pressing 
danger.  For  when  the  world  uses  a  Christian 
ill,  all  the  evil  within  his  heart  will  rise  up  as  at 
a  bugle-note  of  defiance,  and  claim  to  be  allowed 
to  pay  men  back  in  their  own  coin.  There  is  even 
a  sophistical  look  of  even-handedness  about  this 


144  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  which  pleads  plausibly.  '  Why  should  I  not  do 
SECOND  to  others  what  they  do  to  me  ?'  Simply  for  this 
EVIL.  reason,  that  you  are — what  they  are  not — a  child 
of  the  Father  in  heaven.  You  are  bound,  there- 
fore, to  act,  not  like  evil  men,  but  like  the  good 
God,  making  His  example,  and  not  theirs,  your 
model.  Moreover,  you  are  able  to  practise  this 
divine  species  of  retribution,  however  much  it 
may  go  against  nature,  because  it  is  not  you  only 
Cf.  Matt.  X.  20.  who  act,  but  the  Spirit  of  your  Father  Who 
acteth  in  you.  It  is  not,  then,  what  men  give 
us  which  is  to  measure  our  return  to  them,  but 
what  they  ought  to  give  ;  not  what  they  have 
done,  but  what  we  instinctively  wish  they  had 
done.  The  sentence  contains,  not  an  ethical 
principle,  but  a  popular  rule.  Such  measuring  of 
one's  duty  by  one's  self-love  is  like  a  pocket- 
standard,  always  at  hand  and  prompt  of  applica- 
tion ;  of  special  utility,  therefore,  in  those  sudden 
emergencies  which  are  constantly  occurring,  in 
which  a  child  of  God  is  called  to  act  swiftly  and 
alone  amid  the  press  of  this  world's  selfish 
society.  It  is  very  difficult  to  be  always  unlike 
other  men ;  to  meet  barefaced  injury  with  divine 
returns ;  to  get  the  world's  treatment  of  us 
measured  out  of  one  dish,  and  give  it  back  out  of 
a  quite   different   one.     It  needs   prayer  in  the 


Of  Escajping  the  World's  Evil,  145 

closet,  indeed,  first  of  all ;  but  it  also  needs  in      part  n. 
the   market  -  place   some  serviceable  memorable      second 

RELATION  TO 

rule,  adjusted  to  the  golden  standard  ot  heaven,       evil. 
yet  of  ready  application  in  the  affairs  of  earth. 
Such  a  rule  is  this  :  Do  as  you  would  be  done  by. 

III.  I^either  the  gracious  assurance  of  divine  Vers.  13, 14. 
aid  to  be  had  for  earnest  asking,  nor  this  most 
serviceable  of  practical  guides  to  right  action,  can 
make  the  christian  life  an  easy  one.  No  disciple, 
indeed,  has  occasion  for  despair,  with  God  at 
hand  to  be  importuned ;  but  as  little  can  he 
afford,  in  a  world  like  this,  to  be  indolent  or  self- 
indulgent.  Divine  grace  is  promised  to  the 
prayerful,  not  to  supersede  the  call  for  personal 
effort  or  painful  self-denial,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
to  brace  the  soul  for  that  stern  and  resolute 
pursuit  of  singular  holiness,  without  which  the 
gates  of  the  Kingdom  may  be  set  ever  so  open  to 
all  comers,  yet  set  open  to  us  in  vain.  I^or  is 
that  intercourse  with  the  world  which  provokes 
a  Christian  to  weigh  his  conduct  in  the  world's 
own  measure,  instead  of  returning  good  for  its 
evil,  to  be  an  intercourse  without  limits.  The 
world's  way  and  his  way  are  different.  Christ 
was  no  ascetic,  as  John  was :  still  there  is,  after 
all,   a    certain   christian   discipline   which   is  of 

K 


146  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  11.  kin  to  asceticism.  Some  self-imposed  singularity, 
SECOND  an  avoidance  of  the  ways  of  the  pleasure-loving 
EVIL.  crowd,  and  a  soldier-like  choice  of  labour  and 
hardship  ;  these  things  have  their  place  in  the 
christian  ideal,  and  must  be  elected  by  him  who 
would  win  his  way  upward  to  the  christian  heaven. 
Were  we  invited  to  be  holy  amid  a  society  of 
holy  ones,  where  every  surrounding  influence  told 
in  favour  of  goodness,  and  the  sympathy  of  our 
comrades  came  to  the  aid  of  our  own  faltering 
virtue,  the  task  of  christian  service  would  still  be 
a  self-displeasing  task,  painful  to  nature,  and  in- 
■  volving  violence  to  tastes  and  passions  which  are 
hard  to  be  subdued.  So  those  devotees  have 
found,  who  in  evil  times  have  striven  to  create 
for  themselves  a  better  world  within  the  world, 
a  safer  and  more  guarded  society,  where,  under 
less  arduous  conditions,  the  individual  Christian 
might  prosecute  this  needful  labour  of  self-morti- 
fication, and,  hand  in  hand  with  a  like-minded 
few,  might  climb  the  steeps  of  purity  and  devo- 
tion. But  such  a  resource,  whatever  be  its  value, 
John  xvii.  15.  is  not  open  to  us.  It  is  in  the  midst  of  this 
world's  society,  not  out  of  it,  that  we  must  learn 
to  be  unworldly ;  and  the  difliculty  of  prosecut- 
ing inwardly  and  secretly  a  course  of  exceptional 
self-discipline,  while  outwardly  forming  part  of 


Of  Escaping  the  WorlcVs  Evil.  147 

the    vast,    gay,    various,    fascinating,    entangling      part  n. 

scene  which  we  call  '  the  world/  is  a  difficulty      second 

which  it  is  hardly  possible  to  overstate.     To  mark       evil! 

out  for  one's  self  an  uphill  path  of  effort  when  the  FaciUs  descenj 

descent  to  Avernus  is  so  easy ;  to  keep  straight 

on    with    stedfast    purpose,    though    byways    of 

delight  allure  on  either  hand ;  to  walk  with  wary 

foot  the  narrow  ledge  of  duty,  where  one  false 

step  may  prove  a  fatal  one ;  to  dare  to  go  alone, 

God    only    for   unseen   Approver,    nor  heed  the 

mockery  of  the   crowd  who   flout  and  pity  us : 

this   is   that    course    of   life,   wholesome    in   its 

severity,   and  rough  with   self-elected  pains,   to 

which  the  solemn  voice  of  our  King  has  called 

His  followers. 

I  suppose  this  figuring  of  man's  life  as  a  path 
wherein  we  go  is  as  old  as  the  life  of  man.  The 
aged  Jacob  described  his  '  few  and  evil '  years  to  Gen.  xMi.  9. 
Pharaoh  as  a  'pilgrimage;'  and  the  confession  of 
thoughtful  men  from  the  beginning  has  been,  that 
here  on  the  earth  they  were  only  travellers  in  a  Cf.  Heb.  xi. 
strange  land,  passing  on  to  an  unknown   home  Chron!  xxix. 

15 

beyond.       Nor    is    the    choice   of    paths   a   less 

familiar  image  in  all  literature  for  the  momentous 

moral  decision  which  faces  every  comer  into  life. 

The  '  strange  woman '  of  the  Proverbs,  in  whose  See  Prov. 

paths  of  flattery  and  death  '  many  strong  men  ^^'"^^"  ^^'^^"'^' 


148  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      have  been  slain/  with  the  contrasted  figure  of 
SECOND      Wisdom,  whose  voice  in  the  '  places  of  the  paths  ' 
EVIL.        finds  few  to  hearken  as  she  calls  men  all  day  long 
to  '  keep  her  ways/  that  conduct  to  life  and  health : 
this  inspired  parable  of  the  Hebrews  has  its  close 
counterpart  in  the  classical  legend  of  young  Her- 
cules, solicited  at  the  outset  of  life  by  seductive 
pleasure  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other  by  wise 
and  noble  self-control.     It  is  an  old,  old  moral. 
Still  before  the  tender  feet  of  each  new  generation, 
as  it  stands  in  the  pride  of  an  untried  freedom  at 
the  parting  of  the  ways,  there  stretch  these  two 
divergent  paths, — the  pleasant  flowery  road  the 
unseen   end  of  which   is   destruction,  and   that 
unpromising  mountain-path  whose  roughness  and 
narrowness  conduct  the  resolute  wayfarer  to  life. 
Still  by  the  youth's  side  there  stand  two  rival 
So-called         pcrsuadcrs,  such  as  Leonardo  has   fixed  for  us 
Vanity'\n\e  Oil  l^is   teaching   cauvas :    Venus  and   Minerva ; 
SciaiTa"-  L' Allegro  and  II  Penseroso  :  the  loose  patron  of 

Rome^^'  ^^  pleasure,  with  languishing  eye,  and  voice  of  pro- 
mise sweet  to  the  credulous  ear  of  youth  ;  and  on 
the  other  side,  unadorned  grave  wisdom,  draped 
in  sober  grey,  whose  words  speak  only  to  the 
ear  of  faith,  call  only  to  a  manhood  of  hardness, 
and  keep  their  promises  for  the  far-off  to  come. 
A  closer  parallel   than   any  of  these,  and,  I 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil.  149 

think,  the  closest  to  be  found  to  the  form  of  our      part  n. 
Lord's  parable,  is  that  exquisite  passage  in  the      second 
Second  Book  of  Esdras,  in  which  the  inheritance    ' '  evil. 
prepared  for  God's  chosen  is  set  forth  as  a  city  See  2  Esdras 

^     ^  "^  vii.  6-25, 

'  set  upon  a  broad  field/  and  '  fuU  of  all  good 
things ;'  but  it  has  only  a  single  entrance,  and 
that  a  strait  one,  the  '  one  only '  access  to  which 
is  by  a  path  so  narrow,  '  that  there  could  but  one 
man  go  there  at  once,'  and  running  along  a 
perilous  passage  with  '  fire  on  the  right  hand,  and 
on  the  left  a  deep  water.'  The  moral  of  the 
passage  is,  that  if  God's  Israel,  for  whom  so  much 
has  been  done,  will  not  be  at  pains  to  suffer  now 
'  the  strait  commandment '  of  God  in  '  hope  of 
wide  things '  to  come,  '  they  can  never  receive 
what  is  laid  up  for  them.'  The  resemblance  of 
this  allegory  and  its  moral  to  our  Lord's  must 
strike  every  reader;  the  main  difference  being 
that,  in  our  Lord's,  the  broad  path,  which  is  the 
converse  of  the  narrow  one  trodden  by  few,  is 
made  equally  distinct,  and  the  contrast  thereby 
brought  out  in  fuller  relief  and  with  unmatched 
impressiveness.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  so 
clear  whether  our  Lord  desires  us  to  think  of  the 
gate  as  standing  at  the  beginning  or  at  the  end 
of  the  way.  In  the  one  case,  two  roads  of  Hfe 
will  be  viewed  as  leading  us  all  towards  one  or 


150  The  delations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  other  of  two  entrances,  whose  folding-doors  admit 
SECOND  the  wayfarer  either  to  the  dark  metropolis  of 
EVIL.  evil,  the  prison-city  of  destruction,  or  to  that 
capital  seat  of  blessedness  and  honour,  the  celes- 
tial city  of  God.  This  reading  corresponds  with 
the  Esdras  parallel,  and  with  many  familiar  repre- 
sentations in  Holy  Scripture.  But  our  Lord's 
repeated  mention  of  the  gate  before  the  way  seems 
almost  to  shut  us  up^  to  a  different  form  of  the 
figure.  We  may  think,  if  we  will,  of  human 
travellers  as  starting  together  from  one  enclosed 
place  with  a  double  outlet.  The  great  gate 
stands  always  open,  choked  with  a  throng  who 
press  through  its  inviting  portals  to  find  outside 
a  spacious  avenue,  bordered  with  delights,  having 
devious  tracks  traversing  it,  and  broadening  at 
ir-^%^?*',  lit.  intervals  into  still  ampler  spaces  that  allure  to 
loac -space  .  ^.^p^gg^  Some where  in  the  wall  there  is  a  small 
unpromising  wicket,  which  affords  an  alternative 
egress  ;  but  there  are  few  who  notice  it,  or  care 
to  seek  for  it,  or  will  wait  and  knock  at  its  shut 
door ;  and  those  who  do  find  outside  only  a 
very  narrow  and  rugged^  hill  track,  which  pre- 

1  With.  Bengel,  Lange,  Meyer,  and  some  others,  though  not 
the  majority  of  expositors. 

^The  word  'narrow'  {nffXif^fiivfi)  applied  to  the  'way'  (v.  14) 
is  taken  by  some  to  mean  '  rough. '     Literally,  it  means  '  close- 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil.  151 

sently  leads  them  up  from  the  soft  vaUey  into  a      part  n. 
mountain  region  where  the  hardiest  must  walk      second 
with  circumspection,  for  the  cliffs  press  them  on       evil. 
the  right  and  the  chasm  yawns  upon  the  left ;  a 
region  lonely  and  full  of  perils,  pierced  by  a  path 
arduous  to  climb  and  painful  to  tread.      Only  that 
pleasant  frequented  road  has  '  destruction '  for  its 
termination  ;    it  is   this   mountain  track    which 
conducts  us  up  to  '  life '  and  God. 

So  Jesus  left  His  figure :  a  figure  too  plain  to 
need  interpretation.  So,  with  a  terrible  sadness 
which  wastes  no  words,  He  warns  us  from  the 
way  of  death,  and  urges  us  to  seek  with  an 
urgency  winged  by  fear  His  own  blood-sprinkled 
path.  The  earnestness  of  One  Who  died  as  well 
as  spoke  for  our  salvation  burns  through  these 
sentences.  No  one  who  has  followed  this  Preacher 
of  the  Kingdom  through  the  previous  paragraphs 
of  this  Sermon,  with  a  soul  braced  in  good  earnest 
to  do  all  His  bidding,  will  feel  at  all  surprised  to 
hear  Him  term  the  path  of  new  evangelical 
obedience  a  '  strait '  path.  So  straitly  is  it  fenced 
to  right  and  left  by  prescriptions  too  exacting  for 
human  virtue,  so  rough  is  it  with  flinty  duties 
reluctantly  undertaken  by  any  selfish  or  easy 
heart,  that,  after  we  have  weighed  well  the 
privileges  of  God's   christian  children,   and    the 


RELATION  TO 
EVIL. 


152  Tlu  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  large  promises  made  to  prayer,  and  the  splendid 
SECOND  rewards  laid  up  in  the  hereafter,  we  have  still 
need  to  gird  ourselves  with  patient  resolution,  as 
men  do  for  a  long  and  solitary  and  discouraging 
march.  Only  we  have  no  option,  if  we  would 
have  life.  Divine  eyes  looked  abroad  across  the 
manifold  lines  of  human  action  and  into  the 
tangled  characters  and  aims  of  this  world's  society, 
before  He  thus  sharply  sundered  all  the  motley 
throngs  who  pass  along  such  diverse  paths  through 
life  into  two — and  no  more  than  two — classes. 
Divine  eyes  had  pierced  to  the  radical  secret  of 
character,  found  the  key  to  man's  fate,  and  fore- 
iff.  seen  the  ultimate  judgment  which  is  to  sort  us 
all  in  the  end  according  to  our  works,  before  He 
could  thus  confidently  pronounce  upon  the  issues 
of  such  ambiguous  lives  as  men  lead  here  below. 
Jesus  certainly  does  not  speak  in  this  place  after 
a  human  fashion.  To  u.s,  the  paths  of  men  seem 
endless  in  their  moral  diversity :  who  feels 
himself  fit  to  part  his  brothers  betwixt  heaven 
and  hell  ?  To  Jesus,  the  roads  we  go  and  the 
ends  we  reach  have  a  divine  simplicity  :  they 
are  but  two ;  and  He  enunciates  them  with 
a  divine  certainty:  destruction  or  life.  JN'o 
option  is  left  us,  therefore.  To  flinch  from 
the  road  of  christian   obedience,  because  of   its 


Of  Escaping  the  WorlcVs  Evil.  153 

narrow  limits  and  severe  demands  upon  us,  is  to      i'art  u. 
perish.  second 

.  RELATION  TO 

It  is  true  that  this  difficulty  of  christian  ser-  evil. 
vice  is  precisely  that  which  deters  the  mass  of 
men  from  entering  upon  it.  The  world  has  a 
deal  to  offer  to  him  who  will  go  after  it.  Its 
fields  are  green,  its  paths  are  soft,  its  flowers  are 
fair,  its  fruits  are  sweet.  It  fills  the  air  with 
song,  it  beats  the  earth  with  dancing  feet,  it 
knows  to  while  the  tedious  hours  away  with  dalli- 
ance and  laughter.  It  will  make  work  that  must 
be  done  as  light  as  it  can  be  made,  and  fill  up 
intervals  of  leisure  with  pleasures  which  banish 
thought.  Or  should  the  graver  cares  of  study  or 
ambition  be  your  preference,  you  may  choose 
your  own  path — so  long  as  it  is  your  own.  For, 
amid  the  endless  varieties  to  be  found  in  life's 
broad  road,  there  is  but  this  single  mark  by  which 
to  recognise  all  travellers :  they  take  the  path 
which  seems  right  in  their  own  eyes.  And  the 
repulsiveness  of  christian  living  is  accordingly 
to  be  sought  just  here,  in  its  requiring  us  to 
deny  our  likings  that  we  may  go  the  way, 
and  hear  the  voice,  and  do  the  bidding,  of 
Another,  in  our  own  despite.  Is  it  strange  if 
comparatively  few  go  out  of  their  path  to  seek 
for,  and  with  pains   and  self-denial  press  their 


154  TJie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

j'AKT  II.      steps  into,  so  confined  a  way  tlirougli  a  gate  of 
SECOND      straitness  ? 

RELATION  TO  _  -  i  i  i  i        i   • 

EVIL.  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  this  very  unpo- 

pularity of  christian  life  increases  its  difficulty. 
To  deny  one's  own  likings  in  order  to  serve  Christ 
is  not  easy  at  the  best :  it  is  doubly  hard  when 
to  do  it  you  must  incur  the  pain  of  being  singular. 
On  another  occasion,  when  Jesus  was  asked,  in  a 
spirit  of  idle  curiosity,  whether  there  are  few  that 
be  saved,  He  gave,  in  place  of  a  direct  reply,  only 
this  same  exhortation  to  be  in  earnest  about  one's 
personal  salvation ;  He  sharpened  His  words  to  a 
still  keener  edge  :  '  Agonize  to  go  in  at  the  strait 
gate;'  and  He  enforced  His  admonition  by  the 
warning  that,  of  those  who  do  seek  to  enter, '  many 
shall  not  be  able.'  Even  from  that  passage  one 
miglit  gather  that  our  Lord  did  not  anticipate  that 
the  number  of  His  genuine  and  loyal  followers 
should  ever  preponderate  in  the  world.  In  this 
passage  He  surely  says  so  expressly.  To  Him, 
those  who  were  to  receive  the  Kingdom  were  ever 
a  'little  flock;'  and  the  history  of  Christendom 
has  been  a  running  illustration  of  His  words. 
Even  when  the  deepest  and  on  the  whole  strongest 
currents  determining  the  great  movements  of 
secular  history  have  obeyed  a  christian  impulse, — 
as,  for  example,  when  the  Eoman  Empire  turned 


I'AKT  II. 


SECOND 


Of  Escaping  the  World's  Evil.  155 

from  Paganism  to  Christianity,  or  when  the  six- 
teenth century  Eeformation  determined  in  the 
seventeenth  the  wars  and  alliances  of  Europe, —  '  ^x\l. 
those  individuals  who  genuinely  sought  to  obey 
the  laws  of  Jesus  have  never  been  in  a  majority. 
The  world  of  society  is  still,  in  spite  of  all,  a 
broad  road,  where  a  thousand  preferences  lead 
men  after  a  thousand  interests,  and  you  may 
humour  any  whim  or  chase  any  phantom  delight 
you  please,  but  where  those  are  few  and  far  be- 
tween who  thorouiihlv  subordinate  evervthiu2:  else 
to  the  one  end  of  obeying,  copying,  and  pleasing 
as  their  King  and  Leader,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Those  who  do,  find  their  christian  career  made 
immensely  more  difficult  by  such  singularity. 
The  mass  of  one's  neis^hbours  is  husje  enouofh  to 
generate  a  public  opinion  against  which  it  is  hard 
to  contend.  Among  the  crowds  who  affect  no 
christian  isolation  or  peculiarity,  there  are  so 
many  whom  on  other  grounds  one  must  love  and 
venerate,  that  it  is  hard  always  to  feel  sure  that 
one  is  right  and  they  all  wrong.  So  much 
which  is  innocuous,  desirable,  and  excellent  is 
mixed  up,  through  this  disastrous  condition  of 
society  at  large,  with  the  mighty  current  sweep- 
ing downwards  away  from  Christ,  and  must  be 
abandoned  along  with  it,  that  one   resents  the 


156  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

sacrifice  as  if  the  world  had  robbed  us  of  a  part 
of  our  patrimony.  When  the  good  cannot  be 
disentangled  from  the  evil,  both  have  to  be 
thrown  away  together;  and  perforce  to  throw 
away  a  good  thing  is  bitter  loss.  To  sensitive 
natures  with  a  broad  humanity,  there  is  even,  at 
the  root  of  all  this,  a  fixed  pain  in  being  pro- 
foundly out  of  harmony  with  the  bulk  of  their 
fellow-men.  Not  mainly  through  dread  of  being 
ridiculed.  That  is  possibly  a  ruder  trouble, 
though  it  certainly  besets  fine  natures.  At  any 
rate,  the  isolation  of  the  true  Christian  is  in  our 
age  more  an  inward  than  an  outward  isolation. 
Usually  it  involves  no  avoidance  of  common  life, 
save  of  such  doubtful  or  disreputable  scenes  as 
any  man  may  avoid  without  being  singular. 
There  is  nothing  to  hinder  any  one  from  living 
the  severest  life  of  christian  self-discipline  and 
restraint,  or  devoting  one's  self  under  the  noblest 
motives  to  christian  service,  without  abandoning 
society,  or  even  continuing  to  attract  exceptional 
remark.  For  the  secret  aim  of  life  may  be  en- 
tirely controlled  by  Christ's  law  under  a  strict 
observance  of  His  restraints,  while  the  outer  life 
is  not  obtrusively  changed.  But,  with  all  this, 
many  tender  souls  will  be  painfully  aware  that 
they  have  in  all  grave  affairs  parted  company 


Of  Escaping  the  WorlcVs  Evil.  157 

from  their  neighbours  and  acquaintances.     Having      part  h. 
put  their  life  docilely  into  the  hand  of  Christ,  He      second 

,         ,      ,  f.     1       •         1  1  1    •  RELATION  TO 

seems  to  lead  them  up  out  oi  their  old  sympathies  evil. 
"with  common  life,  into  a  lonely  place  whose 
keener  air  others  do  not  breathe,  and  the  hard- 
ships of  which  hardly  a  soul  knows  but  them- 
selves,— a  height  to  which  the  din  of  earthly 
interests  appears  to  rise  faint  and  far  off  like  the 
hum  of  a  remoter  land. 

After  all,  it  is,  in  the  heart  and  secret  history 
of  it,  a  singular  march  for  the  golden  city  to  each 
separate  pilgrim.  Spiritual  discipline  in  the 
secret  following  of  Christ  is  (as  that  Book  of 
Esdras  describes  it)  a  pathway  where  two  cannot 
walk  quite  abreast.  Alone,  each  of  us  must  seek 
that  small  wicket-door  which  stands  at  the  head 
of  the  w^ay,  and  by  a  solitary  repentance  set  out 
for  heaven.  Alone,  too,  each  one  must  deal  with 
the  exceptional  defects  and  faults  of  his  own 
character — must  train  himself  by  solitary  self-ex- 
amination, prayer,  and  denial.  The  eye  of  each 
must  be  on  the   One  Forerunner  Whose  shinincr 

o 

prints  attest  to  the  heedful  looker  that  our  feet 
are  keeping  the  narrow  path ;  and  when  we 
wander  or  grow  faint,  it  is  by  a  cry  which  only 
His  ear  catches  that  we  have  to  summon  to  our 
aid  the  unseen  Hand  of  His  help.     Who  knows, 


158  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 


PART  II. 

SECOND 

RELATION  TO 

EVIL. 


See  Pf.  xxiv. 


save  Him,  our  falls  and  risings,  our  stumbles  and 
toils  ?  Who,  save  Him,  shall  see  when  alone  the 
weary  pilgrim  reaches  home  at  last  and  enters 
in,  not,  as  at  the  first,  by  the  strait  wicket  of  a 
humbling  penitence,  but  at  the  mighty  golden 
gates  of  Jehovah's  Temple — those  '  everlasting 
doors '  through  which  the  clean  of  hand  and 
pure  of  heart  shall  pass,  to  stand  for  ever  beside 
the  King  of  Glory  within  His  holy  place  ? 


OF  DETECTING  FALSE  TEACHERS 
IN  THE  KINGDOM. 


159 


Beicare  of  false  propliets^  which  come  to  you  in  sheep's 
clothing,  but  inwardly  they  are  ravening  wolves.  Ye  shall 
know  them  by  their  fruits.  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns, 
or  figs  of  thistle sf  Even  so  every  good  tree  bringeth  forth 
good  fruit ;  but  a  corrupt  tree  bringeth  forth  evil  fruit.  A 
good  tree  cannot  bring  forth  evil  fruit,  neither  can  a  corrupt 
tree  bring  forth  good  fruit.  Every  tree  that  bringeth  not 
forth  good  fruit  is  hewn  down,  and  cast  into  the  f  re.  Where- 
fore by  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them. — Matt.  vii.  1 5-20. 
Cf.  Luke  vi.  43-45. 


160 


RELATION  TO 
EVIL. 


OF  DETECTING  FALSE  TEACHERS 
IN  THE  KINGDOM. 

THE  way  to  life,  being  narrow,  is  iU  to  find.  part  n 
It  is  therefore  found  by  few  ;  and  he  who  third 
would  walk  in  it  must  make  up  his  mind  to 
walk  alone  against  a  mighty  crowd  that  presses 
the  other  way.  To  follow  Christ  means  to  with- 
stand the  world's  example.  But  this  is  not  all. 
There  are  never  wanting  would-be  guides,  who 
volunteer  to  show  to  seeking  souls  the  path 
of  life ;  smooth-tongued  teachers,  who  beset  the 
steps  of  the  credulous  pilgrim,  and,  under  pro- 
fessions of  unusual  interest  in  his  salvation, 
counsel  him  to  select  a  less  arduous  road  to 
heaven.  A  new  peril  thus  attends  the  christian 
disciple.  To  that  danger  which  arises  from  the 
existence  of  God's  little  kingdom  within  this 
vast  and  evil  world  of  the  ungodly,  there  comes 
another  danger  from  the  existence  of  evil  and 
worldly  elements  within  God's  kingdom  itself. 
This  danger,  too,  is  all  the  greater,  because  such 
evil  as  creeps  into  the  fold  of  Christ  to  mislead 
L 


162  Tlie  Bclations  of  the  Kingdom. 

His  followers,  must  disguise  itself.  Out  in  the 
open  world  you  see  the  crowds  who  plod  or 
gambol  down  to  death,  makinoj  no  concealment 
of  their  sin.  But  when  evil  enters  the  enclosed 
and  guarded  kingdom  of  Christ's  saints,  it  must 
wear  a  specious  cloak  of  goodness  and  speak  the 
language  of  the  kingdom.  Only  under  pretence 
of  conducting  men  to  eternal  life,  can  such  de- 
ceivers betray  them  to  eternal  death. 

The  transition  which  our  Lord  here  makes 
from  the  last  to  the  present  paragraph,  is  accord- 
ingly one  of  contrast.  From  the  relations  of 
His  christian  society  to  the  world  of  open  evil 
outside  of  it,  He  passes  to  its  relations  to  such 
evil  as  may  lurk  inside  of  it.^  Now  it  is  ex- 
ceedingly significant  that  our  Lord  represents 
the  evil  which  was  sure  to  penetrate  within  His 
Church,  and  which  has  so  largely  succeeded  in 
secularizing  it,  as  commencing  from  false  teachers. 
At  the  outset,  His  followers  may  be  assumed  to 
be  all  of  them  men  who  are  sincere  in  seeking 
a  way  to  celestial  life.  Who  would  attach  him- 
self to  this  lowly  and  rejected  Master  for  any 
other  reason  ?     But  when  the   conditions  which 

1  The  Church  in  the  evil  world  is  like  '  sheep  in  the  midst  of 
wolves  '  (Matt.  x.  16) ;  conversely,  the  world  within  the  Church 
is  like  wolves  among  the  sheep  (vii.  15).  On  the  use  of  this 
emblem,  of.  Ecclus.  xiii.  17. 


Of  Detecting  Fctlse  Tectchcrs  in  the  Kingdom.    163 

He  lays  down  are  discovered  to  be  so  stringent^      part  n. 
and  the  path  He  leads  in  so   strait  and  steep,       third 

.,  .1  1  •  .  1  -1  •  •         1      RELATION  TO 

It  presently  begins  to  be  said,  or  imagined,  evil. 
that  life  may  be  had  on  easier  terms.  The 
original  gospel  of  the  King  undergoes  some 
modification.  Surreptitiously,  corruption  of  doc- 
trine enters.  Teachers  who  profess  to  teach  still 
in  the  name  of  Jesus,  point  men  to  a  path  which 
looks  deceptively  like  the  narrow  way,  and  appears 
to  conduct  to  a  similar  issue ;  only  it  is  not  so 
narrow,  after  all,  as  the  narrow  way  itself,  and 
in  the  end  its  issues  are  not  really  different  from 
those  of  the  broad  road  that  leads  to  death. 
Now,  it  is  plain  that  corruption  of  doctrine  which 
begins  thus,  must  end  in  corruption  of  morals. 
The  very  motif  to  such  false  teaching  is  a  desire 
to  broaden  somewhat  the  excessive  straitness 
of  the  gospel  path  to  life,  to  relax  a  little  the 
ethical  severity  of  Christ's  kingdom;  and  how- 
ever such  a  motif  may  in  the  first  instance 
conceal  itself,  it  cannot  fail  in  the  long  run  to 
work  its  natural  fruit  in  a  lower  standard  of 
christian  behaviour,  and  some  concession  to  the 
evil  world.  False  teaching  of  Christianity,  there- 
fore, ends  in  making  false  Christians  :  a  process  Cf.  ver.  15 
quite  faithfully  reflected  in  this  closing  portion 
of  our  Lord's  sermon.     From  a  warning  against 


164  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  pseiido-propliets,  the  Preacher  advances  by  an 
almost  insensible  transition  to  the  doom  of  pro- 
fessors who  work  iniquity. 

For  the  same  reason,  it  lies  deep  in  the  nature 
of  the  case  that  the  ultimate  test  of  all  teaching 
which  calls  itself  christian  can  only  be  its  moral 
tendency  and  results.  Such  a  test  was  of  especial 
value  in  the  first  age  of  Christianity,  before  the 
formation  and  acceptance  of  the  New  Testament 
canon  had  furnished  the  Church  with  an  un- 
changing literary  standard  of  truth.  Even  amid 
the  confused  and  contradictory  deductions  which 
have  in  later  Christendom  been  drawn  from  the 
words  of  Scripture,  this  practical  criterion  remains 
as  an  invaluable  check  upon  our  mistakes  of 
interpretation.     Its  ground  lies  here :  '  The  Son 

1  John  iii.  8.  of  God  was  manifested,  that  He  might  destroy 
the  works  of  the  devil.'  His  gospel  has  for  its 
practical  end  to  deliver  men  from  sin,  and  repro- 

Gai.  i.  4,  c.       duce  within  them  the  likeness  of  their  Father 

Rom.  viii.  29. 

m  heaven.  It  follows,  that  whatever  does  not 
really  contribute  towards  this  moral  process,  or, 
at  least,  whatever  is  found  practically  to  tell  in 
an  opposite  direction,  can  be  no  j)oi'tion  of 
genuine  gospel  teaching.  It  would  have  been 
well  if  theologians  had  always  kept  more  steadily 
before  their  view  that  it  is  this  ethical  design 


RELATION  TO 
EVIL. 


Of  Detecting  False  Teachers  in  the  Kingdom.    165 

to  lead  men  in  the  way  of  holiness  which  con-  pakt  n 
stitutes  the  very  raison  d'etre  of  the  christian  third 
system,  and  that  no  branch  of  christian  doctrine 
may  decline  to  be  tried  by  its  manifest  results 
on  human  life. 

What  I  have  now  said,  however,  though  it  is 
a  fair  deduction  from  His  w^ords,  is  not  the  same 
thing  as  our  Lord  says  in  the  text.  To  judge  of 
doctrines  by  their  ultimate  ethical  results  upon 
society  is  one  thing ;  to  judge  of  them  by  the 
personal  conduct  of  those  who  preach  them  is 
quite  another.  It  has  sometimes  happened  in 
the  history  of  heresies,  that  a  serious  and  in  the 
end  disastrous  aberration  from  sound  doctrine 
was  broached  for  the  first  time  by  a  man  of 
unimpeachable  sincerity  and  christian  pureness 
of  living.  It  is  not  to  teachers  of  this  class 
that  Jesus  points,  at  least  in  terms :  though  here 
also  the  principle  of  judgment  on  which  He  pro- 
ceeds admits  of  a  valid,  though  less  immediate, 
application;  an  application  not  to  the  original 
teacher,  but  to  the  system  taught.  The  class  of 
false  teachers  which  Jesus  evidently  had  in  His 
eye-^  embraced  such   as  were  either  intentional 

"I  Cf.  tlie  use  of  olrtvis  in  ver.  15  =  '  teachers  of  such  a  sort  as 
come  in  sheep's  clothing,'  etc. 


166  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

pAKT  ir.  deceivers,  misguiding  the  Cliurcli  tlirongli  evil 
THIRD  will,  and  stealing  into  her  communion  under 
EVIL.  false  colours,  with  a  fixed  purpose  to  delude  the 
unwary ;  or  (which  is  more  probable)  men  who 
taught  a  false  gospel,  because,  in  their  own 
spiritual  darkness  of  heart,  they  had  never  them- 
selves repented  unto  life,  nor  ever  found  for  their 
own  salvation  that  true  way  of  peace  which  they 
professed  to  indicate  to  others.  In  both  cases, 
unquestionably,  false  doctrine  will  be  a  direct  pro- 
duct of  an  unrenewed  and,  at  its  core,  evil  heart. 
Grant  only  sufficient  time  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  character,  and  the  radically  unchristian 
spirit  of  teachers  of  this  stamp  may  be  expected 
to  display  itself  in  flagrantly  unchristian  lives. 

Now,  that  the  Preacher  spoke  so  personally, 
and  restricted  the  application  of  His  moral  test 
to  the  character  of  individual  teachers,  came  in 
part  from  the  concrete  manner  which  was  cha- 
racteristic of  Him.  Jesus  left  it  to  the  subse- 
quent reflection  of  His  Church  to  think  out 
those  principles  which  always  underlay  His 
utterances,  and  to  apply  them  afresh  to  new 
occasions  as  the  need  arose.  For  Himself,  He 
usually  threw  His  lessons  into  some  popular 
form,  bearing  immediately  upon  the  case  before 
Him,  and  easily  intelligible  by  His  first  hearers. 


Of  Detecting  False  Teachers  in  the  Kingdom.    167 

Here,  for  instance,  when  He  spoke  of  false  pro-      tart  ii. 
phets  who,  underneath  a  sheep's  skin,  concealed       third 
the  disposition  of  a  wolf.  His  Jewish  audience    '    evu.. 
could   be  at  no  loss  to  understand   the  kind  of 
teachers  He  meant.     They  were  only  too  familiar 
with   religious   rulers   of  their   own   nation   and 
expositors  of  their  own  Scriptures,  whose  sanc- 
timonious   exterior    concealed    the    vices     of    a 
hypocrite ;    who,   as   Jesus   on   a   later   occasion 
described   them   at   Jerusalem,   in   words   which 
recall  the  vigorous  denunciations  of  Ezekiel,  were 
no   true    shepherds,    but   ^  thieves   and   robbers  '  John  x.  i-iq ; 
who   had   climbed   into   God's  fold,   that,  under 
pretence    of    herding,   they    might    ravage    and 
plunder  it.      Of  such  false  and  wicked  teachers 
among  the  Pharisees  of  His  own  day,  Jesus  was 
not  now  speaking,  it  is  true  ;^  but  He  was  speak- 
ing  of  false   and   wicked   teachers   very  similar 
to  them  in  character  and  mode  of  operation,  who 
should  within  a  very  short  time  find  their  way 
into   His  own  infant  kingdom.      His  words  are 
certainly  prophetic ;  but  they  describe  a  state  of 
matters  in  the  New  Testament  Church  very  like 

1  Neither  can  He  be  taken  as  alluding  here  to  false  pretenders 
to  Messiahship,  whose  appearance  before  the  fall  of  Jerusalem 
is  predicted  in  Matt.  xxiv.  24.  But  the  reference  (see  xxiv.  11) 
earlier  in  the  same  discourse  may  be  to  the  heretics  of  the  early 
Church,  as  in  the  text  before  us. 


168  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PAR^ii.      what   His  hearers  had  before  their  eyes  in  the 
THIRD       Old  Testament  commonwealth ;  and  the  state  of 

ELATION  TO 

EVIL.        matters  which   He   so  vividly  forecast  came   to 
pass   at  no  distant  date.      The  early  history  of 
Christianity  furnishes  a  full  justification  of  the 
form  into  which  our  Lord  threw  His  warning. 
Those  very  men  to  whom  He  mainly  addressed 
this  sermon — the  new-made  apostles — were  not 
yet  in  their  graves  before  such  an  irruption  of 
evil  doctrine   as   is   here   foretold,   alarmed   the 
leaders  of  the   Church  in   every  part  of  Chris- 
tendom.      Again    and     again    the    language    of 
the   apostolic    letters   reflects   these   forewarning 
sts  XX.  29, 30;  words  of  the  Founder.     When  St.  Paul,  indeed, 
eWieseier,    Speaking  at  Milctus  in  the  spring  of  58,  alluded 
'itaiters.      '  to   thcse  Very  words   of  his   Lord,  it  was    still 
only  to  warn  the   Ephesian   elders   both  against 
'  grievous  wolves '  who  should  come  from  without 
the  Church,  and  against  'perverse'  men  who  should 
arise  wdthin  it.     But  the  evil  which  had  not  then 
reached  Ephesus  was  already  at  work  in  Corinth 
and    Galatia ;     for,    writing    to    these    churches 
in    the    previous    year,   he   had    denounced   the 
Cor.  xi._i3-   '  pseudo-apostles '  and  '  pseudo-brethren,'  who  had 
reek.  *    "   '  Crept   In  under   false    appearances,-^   as    servants 

^  Our  Lord's  jilirase  about  'sheep's  clotliing'  finds  its  best 
commentary  in  what  St.  Paul  wrote  (in  the  same  year  57)  to 


Of  Detecting  False  Tcacliers  in  the  Kingdom.    1 G  9 

of  Satan,  whose   end   slioulcl   be   as  their  works      part  ir. 
were.      The   letters   to   Titus   and   Timothy  pro-       third 

1      1  1       1      1  1  1  Til  •  RELATION  TO 

bably  belong  to  a  later  date ;  and  by  that  time        evil. 

we  find   heretical  leaders   infesting  the   Church 

not  only  at  Ephesus,  as  Paul  had  foreseen,  but  Seel  Tim.  i.  3; 

in  Crete  also.      The  false  teaching  had  its  roots 

in  the   evil   heart,  and   it  led   to  evil  practices.  Cf.  l  Cor.  xv. 

Some,  having  put  away  a   good  conscience,  had 

in  consequence  made  shipwreck   of  their  faith ;  l  Tim.  i.  19. 

others,  who  failed  to  keep  love  in  view  as  the 

end  of  the  law^,  had  turned  aside  to  '  vain  jang-  lUd.  ver.  6. 

ling'  in   doctrine.      Deceitful  talkers  were   thus 

subverting  whole  households  for  the  sake  of  gain 

— their  words  eating  as  a  canker  into  the  life  of  Tit.  i.  lo,  ii ; 

the  Church;  and  many  of  the  brethren  had  been 

like  men  who,  after  being  dru(]^cjed,  were  entrapped  2  Tim.  ii.  26, 

^  ^^      '  ^^         Greek ;  cf. 

alive  in  the  nets  of  Satan.      Still  worse  and  more  iii.  8. 
perilous  times  he  saw  impending  on  the  christian 
world.      Nor  was  St.  Paul  mistaken  in  his   dark 
auc^uries.     The  diabolical  doctrines  of  which  he  See  i  Tim.  iv. 

^  .  1  ff.  ;  2  Tim. 

forewarned  the  Church,  and  the  wicked  seducers  iii.  1-5, 13. 

whom  he  expected  to  '  w^ax  worse  and  worse,'  are 

fully    matched    by  the   '  damnable   heresies '    of  cf.  2  Pet.  ii. 

n-      J.  ^  1.  J.   i.  1        andJixde, pass. 

profligate  and  presumptuous  apostates,  so  vehe- 

Piome  about  men  who  for  sensual  ends  '  deceive  the  hearts  of 
the  simple  '  by  '  good  words  and  fair  speeches  : '  see  Eom.  xvi. 
17-20  (cf.  '  having  a  form  of  godliness,  but  denying  the  power 
thereof,'  in  2  Tim.  iii.  5). 


170  TJie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      mently  inveighed   against   by  St.   Peter  and   St. 
THIRD       Jude.       And    finally,   before    St.   John   left   the 

1!  ILLATION  TO 

EVIL.        world,   heresies   which    he   did   not   hesitate    to 

1  John  ii.  18-   brand  as  antichristian  were  promulo-ated  by  men 

22,  iv.  1-6 ;  i  o  J 

2  John  7-11.     against  whom  he  bade   his   converts   close  their 

doors.  The  whole  apostolical  literature,  in  fact, 
proves  that,  within  half  a  century  after  Jesus 
nttered  this  warning,  every  portion  of  His  infant 
Church  was  literally  overrun  with  false  teachers 
of  precisely  the  description  here  drawn  ;  men  who 
under  the  garb  of  Christians  covered  the  same 
vices  of  rapacity,  profligacy,  and  guile  which  had 
made  a  section  of  the  Pharisaic  party  infamous ; 
men  whose  misleading  doctrines  sprang  secretly 
from  an  evil  heart,  and  were  shown  to  be  false 
by  their  practical  results  in  an  evil  life. 

Such  was  the  pertinence  of  Jesus'  warning  to 
His  first  followers ;  and  the  test  He  gave  them 
was  both  a  practicable  and  a  trustworthy  one. 
Jude  4.  Men    who    '  turn    the    grace    of    our    God    into 

lasciviousness,'  are  men  who  really  walk,  not  in 
the  narrow,  but  in  the  broad  way,  while  they 
allure  others  into  it  on  pretence  that  it  is  the 
way  to  life.  To  learn  the  true  nature  of  such 
men,  you  have  to  look  not  at  their  external  pro- 
fession, which  is  a  thing  put  on,  but  at  their  real 
behaviour,  which  is  a  genuine  outcome  of  the  life 


Of  Detecting  False  Teacliers  in  the  Kingdom.    1 7 1 

within.     Two  metaphors  are  employed;   but  in      pa^h. 
passinfy  from  the  sheep-skin  hanmncj  on  the  wolf's       third 

-^  °  ^  o       o  ^        ^       RELATION  TO 

back  to  the  fruit  growing  on  a  living  plant,  it  is        evil. 

obvious  that  Jesus  sets  in  contrast  that  part  of  a 

man's  visible  life  which  has   a  radical   or  vital 

connection  with  his  own  nature,  over  against  that 

other  part  which  has  no  such  connection  at  all. 

Suppose  you  stay  by  the  first  metaphor  alone  ; 

then  the  meaning  would  be  expressed  thus :  The 

wolf   in    sheep-skin    is   detected   for   a  wolf  as 

soon    as    it    begins    to    ravin.      Or,    express    it 

wholly  under  the  second  figure,  and  it  will  run 

thus :  The  buckthorn  is  not  a  vine,  because  the  Cf.  Thoiuck, 

in  loc. 

bunches  of  black  berries  on  its  tall  stalk  may 
look  so  like  grapes  as  to  cheat  the  distant  eye : 
taste  them  ;  they  are  but  bitter  and  unwholesome 
after  all.^  The  first  metaphor  is  best  adapted  to 
convey  the  idea  of  an  assumed  or  ungenuine 
exterior,  a  behaviour  which  belongs  to  good  men 
simulated  by  the  bad.  The  second  is  most  fit 
to  carry  this  thought,  that  the  real,  not  assumed, 
behaviour  of  every  man  must  be  a  faithful  expres- 
sion of  his  inner  life,  and  therefore  the  ultimate 

^  In  St.  James'  use  of  the  figure  (iii.  12),  the  difference 
between  good  and  useless  fruits  disappears.  The  botanical  em- 
blem is  with  him  subordinate  to  another  figure  (that  of  water, 
briny  or  sw^'et,  from  a  fountain)  by  which  the  same  idea  is 


172  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      index  by  which  character  is  judged.      Combine 
THIRD       the  lessons  of  both,  and  you  have  a  vivid  picture 
evil!        of  the  danger  of  judging  solely  by  appearances, 
which   may   be   assumed,   and   the   necessity   of 
verifying  such  appearances  by  the  genuine  out- 
come of  character  in  practice. 

With  this  clue  in  our  hand,  we  shall  hardly 
misread  the  meaning  of  our  Lord.  Two  readings 
certainly  are  possible.  Ever  since  men  began  to 
study  the  Gospels,  a  difference  of  opinion  has 
prevailed  on  the  point  whether  the  '  fruits '  by 
which  the  false  prophets  are  to  be  known  denote 
their  personal  conduct  or  their  doctrines.-^     Now, 

1  To  us  it  does  seem  inconceivabla  liow  the  bulk  both  of  the 
early  Fathers,  and  of  the  reformed  divines  before  Bengel,  could 
take  our  Lord  as  meaning  that  we  are  to  detect  false  teachers 
by  the  falseness  of  their  teaching.  Is  not  that  to  assume  the 
very  thing  which  has  to  be  decided  ?  It  is  true  that  there  is, 
as  has  been  said,  a  class  of  heretical  or  mistaken  teachers,  whose 
lives  are  pure  though  their  creed  may  in  some  things  be  hetero- 
dox ;  and  therefore  our  Lord's  words  will  not  bear  to  be  pressed 
further  than  the  limitations  of  the  case  warrant:  but  it  was 
surely  making  too  much  of  orthodoxy  to  say  (even  in  a 
'  Catholic  '  age)  that  all  mistaken  theologians  must  be  '  hewn 
down  and  cast  into  the  fire. '  The  '  fruits  '  of  such  a  misconcep- 
tion have  been  only  too  patent  and  too  unhappy.  Nearly  every 
commentator  who  has  read  the  test  in  this  way  has  turned  it 
against  those  in  the  Church  whose  views  of  doctrine  differed 
from  his  own.  The  Fathers  directed  its  edge  against  all  sects 
outside  the  Catholic  Church  ;  Maldonatus  against  the  Calvin- 
ists ;  Calvinists  against  the  Socinians.  The  weapon  is  too 
perilous  a  one  to  be  wielded  in  this  fashion.  Fortunately,  it  cuts 
all  ways ;  and  such  ox^posite  applications  refute  one  another. 


RELATION  TO 
•  EVIL. 


Of  Detecting  False  Teacliers  in  the  Kingdom.    173 

to  lis  it  appears  tliat  the  first  key  to  a  judicious  part  1 1 
interpretation  of  the  text  must  lie  in  its  imme-  third 
diate  limitation  to  a  certain  foreseen  description 
of  errorists ;  to  such  as  should  deliberately  per- 
vert the  gospel  in  the  interests  of  a  relaxed  moral 
code  and  a  more  or  less  impure  life.  So  applied, 
the  test  of  conduct  is  obviously  in  its  place.  The 
false  teaching  is  convicted  of  being  false  by  its 
vital  connection  with  the  evil  life  of  the  teacher. 
The  second  key  lies  in  the  distinction  betwixt 
such  outward  behaviour  as  may  be  assumed,  and 
such  as  must  be  a  genuine  product  of  a  man's 
nature.  It  is  not  accurate  to  say  that  the  dis- 
tinction lies  betwixt  words  and  acts.  The  cloak 
assumed  by  a  hypocrite  often  lies  quite  as  much 
in  borrowed  actions  as  in  borrowed  lanmia^e :  he 
does  what  he  sees  good  men  do,  as  well  as  says 
what  he  hears  them  say.  On  the  other  hand, 
words  when  unstudied  are  to  the  full  as  faithful 
a  reflex  of  character  as  deeds,  because  a  more 
rapid  or  impromptu  utterance  of  it.^     The  real 

'  Hence  in  Luke's  parallel  report  (vi.  45)  we  find  words  in- 
serted which  imply  that  a  man's  words  are  the  'fruit'  by  which 
he  is  to  be  known.  This  parallel  has  no  doubt  assisted  to  con- 
fuse interpreters.  But  the  good  or  evil  which  a  man's  mouth 
speaketh  must  come  from  the  abundance,  literally,  the  overflow 
{-^Tipicrcnuf^cc)  of  his  heart  or  real  moral  life,  if  it  is  to  be  a  genuine 
fruit  by  which  he  can  be  judged.  (The  same  idea  under  the 
same  image  recurs  in  a  different  connection  in  Matt.  xii.  33.) 


174  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  contrast  is  between  the  affected  and  the  spon- 
THiRD  taneous  exhibitions  of  character;  Avhat  a  man 
^'^^EviL^'  ^^  XDretends  to  be  when  he  is  acting  a  part,  and  what 
he  betrays  himself  to  be  when  he  acts  naturally. 
Here  again,  of  course,  genuine  conduct  may  be 
fitly  appealed  to,  in  order  to  test  such  conduct 
as  may  or  may  not  be  genuine.  From  the  evi- 
dence of  a  man's  dress,  an  appeal  always  lies  to 
the  better  evidence  of  his  life. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  obvious  that  the  prin- 
ciple of  detection  laid  down  in  these  verses  is 
one  for  all  time.  When  our  Lord  puts  us  to 
school  among  the  shrubs,  and  bids  us  note  how 
absolute  is  the  law  by  which  each  species  bears 
only  its  own  proper  fruit,  according  to  its  kind, 
— nay,  how  the  inward  soundness  or  decay  of 
each  plant,  even  within  the  same  species,  betrays 

Vers.  17, 18.  itsclf  ill  the  quality  of  its  fruit, — He  lays  to  our 
hand  a  canon  of  judgment  whose  sweep  is  a 
great  deal  wider  than  the  occasion  before  Him. 
We  may  not  always  be  able  to  detect  teachers  of 
error,  as   He  bade  His  apostles  detect  the  '  de- 

2  Cor.  xi.  13.  ccitful  workers '  of  the  first  century.  In  an  age 
like  ours,  an  age  of  spiritual  restlessness,  yet,  on 
the  whole,  of  honest  search  after  truth,  when  the 
indirect   moral  influence  of  the  gospel  goes  far 


Of  Detecting  False  Teachers  in  the  Kingdom.    175 

beyond  the  limits  of  its  dogmatic  acceptance,  we      p-^^t  n. 
see  on  every  hand  of  lis  the  poorest  of  creeds,       third 

1  1         IT  p    1  •  EELATION  TO 

and  even  the  deadliest  of  doctrines,  advocated  by  evil. 
plausible  men  of  upright  motives  and  blameless 
conduct.  We  live  amid  a  din  of  opinion,  more 
diverse  in  speech  than  Babel,  where  every  sectary 
vaunts  his  peculiar  creed,  and  every  self-styled 
instructor  or  '  prophet '  of  men  claims  to  possess 
the  infallible  recipe  for  a  blessed  life  ;  and  though 
we  cannot  apply  our  King's  test  after  the  rough 
and  ready  fashion  of  the  early  age,  we  do  sorely 
need  some  sovereign  touchstone,  if  we  could  but 
find  one,  to  detect  false  teaching  by,  however 
smooth  or  sincere  may  be  the  lips  that  speak  it. 
I^ow,  apart  from  a  direct  appeal  to  the  unequi- 
vocal testimony  of  God  speaking  to  us  through 
His  sacred  Scriptures,^  when  such  is  to  be  had, 
there  is  no  other  criterion  half  so  safe  or  reliable 
as  an  aj)peal  to  moral  results.  Systems  of 
philosophy,  schemes  for  political  regeneration, 
and  all  degrees  of  belief  or  of  no  belief  in 
religion  which  people  embrace,  underlie  the 
operation  of  this  natural  law  quite  as  surely  as 
does  individual  character.     Every  doctrine,  true 

^  '  To  the  Law  and  to  the  Testimony  !  If  they  speak  not 
according  to  this  Word,  it  is  because  there  is  no  light  in  them  ' 
(Isa.  viii,  20). 


176  Tlie  Belations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      or  false,  which  a  man  really  accepts  and  lives  by, 
THIRD       translates  itself  sooner  or  later  into  practice  ;  and 

RELATION  TO  .  ,.,.,,. 

EVIL.  tiie  quality  oi  tne  practice  to  wnicn  it  leads  is  a 
perfectly  fair  index  to  the  worth  or  goodness  of 
the  doctrine.  N"othing  can  be  God's  truth  which, 
fairly  acted  out,  is  found  in  the  long  run  and  on 
a  suJB&cient  induction  of  instances  to  lead  to  sin : 
nothing  a  lie  whose  genuine  outcome  proves  to 
be  holy  living.  The  criterion  is  one  to  Avhich  the 
present  generation  is  partial ;  and  whatever  diffi- 
culties may  attend  its  application,  these  words  of 
Jesus  are  an  ample  recognition  of  its  principle. 
Certainly,  the  Christian  faith  has  no  cause  to 
fear  the  fair  application  of  such  a  standard. 
Whether  it  stand  ranged  for  judgment  according 
to  results  alongside  the  Pagan  and  Mohammedan 
faiths  of  the  world,  or  face  to  face  with  modern 
systems  of  infidelity,  it  can  afford  to  abide  the 
dispassionate  verdict  of  history  and  of  observa- 
tion. Within  Christendom  itself,  the  reformed 
creed  of  Protestant  nations  need  not  decline, 
after  three  centuries  of  trial,  to  be  tested  by  a 
comparison  of  its  '  fruits '  with  those  of  Catholic 
theology.  May  we  not  narrow  the  area  still 
more,  and  say  :  That  type  of  evangelical  Chris- 
tianity which  has  done  most  for  the  production 
on  a  large  scale  of  noble,  heroic,  and  devout  souls. 


Of  Detecting  False  Teachers  in  the  Kingdom.    177 

or  wliicli  has  prevailed  to  fasHon  pure,  free,  and  part  ii. 
healthy  communities  of  men,  capable  of  great  third 
things,  is  that  which  may  claim  to  have  received  evil. 
the  gospel  in  its  utmost  integrity  and  to  reflect 
with  the  greatest  completeness  the  lessons  of  Jesus 
Christ  ?  So  far  I  think  even  irreligious  critics  may 
go  in  testing  the  substantial  worth  of  evangelical 
faith  by  its  historical  effects  on  national  prosperity 
and  national  character.  But  there  are  finer  appli- 
cations of  this  test,  which  every  one  is  not  com- 
petent to  make.  We  need  to  be  educated  by 
Christianity  itself,  before  we  can  quite  recognise 
what  are  the  noblest  and  most  precious  of  those 
fruits  we  owe  to  Christ's  regenerating  grace — 
grapes  of  the  kingdom  which  grow  only  on  the 
true  Vine,  and  are  never  to  be  found  among  the  John  xv.  i. 
thorns  which  sin  has  planted  in  this  smitten  and 
unprofitable  earth.  That  appreciation  of  holi- 
ness, in  the  christian  sense,  or  power  to  discern 
what  is  spiritually  'good,'  without  which  no  one 
is  fit  to  conduct  such  an  inquiry,  is  itself  a 
'fruit'  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ.  Christianity,  in 
fact,  has  created  a  standard  for  itself  To  go 
beyond  this,  and  attempt  to  discriminate  between 
the  tendencies  of  particular  doctrines,  or  of  such  , 

divergent  views  of  divine  truth  as  separate  one 
section  of  the  Evangelical  Church  from  another, 

M 


178  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PAKT  II.  so  as  to  test  their  theological  accuracy  by  their 
THiED  supposed  bearing  on  personal  holiness,  becomes 
EVIL.'  a  task  too  delicate  for  any  save  the  wisest 
and  best  trained  of  spiritual  Christians.  Even 
in  their  hands,  such  an  attempt  may  readily 
miscarry,  through  early  bias  or  some  personal 
preference.  But  differences  in  the  apprehension 
of  revealed  truth  which  tell  so  faintly  upon 
character,  are  by  that  very  fact  proved  to  be  of 
subordinate  moment.  Any  doctrine  which  can  be 
called  essential  to  the  gospel  of  our  salvation 
must  be  capable  of  reproducing  itself  powerfully 
in  spiritual  life.  All  such  minor  variations  of 
opinion,  therefore,  as  have  emerged  among  evan- 
gelical behevers,  when  viewed  from  this  practical 
point  of  view,  sink  into  insignificance  beside  that 
deep  moral  contrast  which  divides  the  fruits  of 
vital  Christianity,  wherever  found,  from  the  fruits 
of  unchristian  and  antichristian  systems,  when 
these  are  suffered  to  develope  their  influence  on  a 
sufficiently  ample  stage  and  through  a  sufficient 
period  of  dominance.  It  is  by  its  fruits,  after  all, 
that  the  world  has  mainly  '  known '  or  acknow- 
ledged the  kingdom  of  Christ. 


OF  JUDGMENT  ON  EVIL  WITHIN 
THE  KINGDOM. 


179 


Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  Me,  '  Lord,  Lord,''  sliall  enter 
into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of 
My  Father  Which  is  in  heaven.  Many  will  say  to  Me  in 
that  day:  '  Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not  prophesied  in  Thy  iiame? 
and  in  Thy  name  have  cast  out  devils'^  and  in  Thy  name 
done  many  wonderful  ivorksV  And  then  will  1  profess  unto 
them :  '  /  never  knew  you ;  depart  from  Me,  ye  that  loork 
iniquity ! '—Matt.  vii.  21-23.     Cf .  Luke  vi.  46,  xiii.  25-27. 


180 


OF  JUDGMENT  ON  EYIL  WITHIN 
THE  KINGDOM. 

OUK  Lord's  sermon  bends  to  its  close.     His      part  n, 
words  take  here  a  wider  range,  and  their      fourth 

, ,  T  ,  .,  rjM  •  RELATION  TO 

tones  gather  a  deeper  solemnity,  ihere  is  no  es-  ^vil. 
sential  change  of  subject  at  this  point ;  it  is  stiU 
the  same  great  law  of  which  He  speaks — a  law  as 
binding  in  morals  as  in  physics :  that  the  cha- 
racter of  each  kind  of  life  is  to  be  ascertained  by 
its  results.  '  Judgment  according  to  works  '  con- 
tinues to  be  the  keynote  of  His  discourse.  But 
while  this  one  principle  is  common  to  the  present  vers.  21-23 

,,,,„.  1        J 1  1     compared  with 

and    to    the    foregoing    paragraph,    there    surely  vers.  15-20. 
occurs  a  change,  or  an  advance,  in  His  applica- 
tion of  the  ]3rincix3le.^     The  image  is  dropped; 
and  in  dropping  the  image,  there  is  a  progress 

1  The  relation  betwixt  vers.  15-20  and  vers.  21-23  has  been 
variously  apprehended  by  expositors  ;  but  Meyer  is  certainly 
less  keen  of  observation  than  usual  when  he  says  {5th  ed. ) : 
*  Kun  giebt  Jesus  ohne  Bild  an,  was  Er  mit  seiner  bildlichen 
Rede  von  den  Fruchten  gemeint  hat. '  How  could  the  passage 
lead  us  on  to  the  general  lesson  of  vers.  24-27,  if  the  reference 
was  not  widened  from  false  prophets  to  all  false  professors 
whatever  ? 

181 


182  The  Relatio7is  of  the  Kingdom. 

in  the  thought.  The  verses  last  considered  apply 
to  the  present ;  these  now  before  ns  to  the  future. 
Those  refer  to  deceivers ;  these  to  the  seK-de- 
ceived.  The  former  guide  our  judgment  upon 
evil  teachers  who  are  found  within  God's  king- 
dom in  this  world ;  but  the  latter  describe  the 
Lord's  own  judgment,  and  how  He  will  finally 
shut  evil  men  out  of  His  kingdom  hereafter. 
In  the  previous  sentences,  the  reference  was 
narrowed  to  a  single  class,  such  false  teachers 
as  we  must  test,  since  they  will  mislead  us  un- 
less we  beware  of  them ;  but  now  His  language 
widens  to  embrace  all  professed  subjects  of  His 
kingdom  whose  lives  are  inconsistent  with  their 
profession.  Hitherto,  Jesus  has  been  speaking 
as  the  Founder  of  His  Church ;  now  He  speaks 
as  its  final  Judge. 

So  unexpected  an  enlargement  of  the  applica- 
tion which  is  made  of  the  great  principle  just 
reasserted,-^  necessitates  a  remarkable  change  in 
the  tone  and  attitude  of  the  Preacher.  Hitherto, 
He  has  sat  quietly  among  the  crowd,  clad  only 
with  a  gentle  dignity,  and  speaking  words  of 
human  lowliness.     Blessings  have  dropped  from 

^  Tlie  principle  is  repeated  in  ver.  20,  which,  while  it  looks 
back  to  and  rehearses  ver.  16a,  forms  really  a  new  starting-point 
for  ver.  21  tf. 


Of  Judgment  on  Evil  within  the  Kingdom.     183 

His    lips.       Even    in    legislating    for    His    new      part  h. 
kingdom.  He  has  been  content  to  interpret  the      fourth 

.    .         RELATION  TO 

ancient  statute-law  of  Israel,  to  develope  its  spirit,  evil. 
and  to  trace  afresh  its  bearing  on  the  every-day 
life  of  society.  He  has  stooped  to  gather  lessons 
of  cheer  for  the  toiling  poor  from  flower  and  bird. 
He  has  encouraged  us  to  speak  to  God  like  chil- 
dren who  ask  bread  from  their  father.  All  His 
words  have  been  most  human,  full  of  earthly 
pictures,  and  considerately  adapted  to  our  infirmi- 
ties ;  even  when  at  the  end  they  have  grown 
sharp  with  a  call  to  self-denial,  or  solemn  with  a 
warning  against  lying  leaders.  But  now,  of  a 
sudden.  He  carries  His  congregation  forward  with 
Him  at  a  leap  to  the  far-off  end  of  all  things  and 
the  awful  day  of  universal  trial.  He  reaches 
forth  into  the  unknown  destinies  of  men;  lifts 
the  veil,  forbidden  to  mortal  hands,  which  con- 
ceals our  final  doom ;  seats  Himself  upon  the 
dread  tribunal  of  the  Omniscient ;  and,  in  brief 
dialogue  which  shakes  the  hearei^'s  heart  with 
terror,  rehearses  the  transactions  and  foretells  the 
irrevocable  sentence  of  the  judgment-day.  As 
though  the  hill-side  grass  had  been  transformed 
into  'a  great  white  throne,'  and  His  Galilean  See  Rev.  xx. 
peasant  garb  into  robes  of  flame  !  What  wonder 
if  the  hushed  multitude  crouched  in  silence  that 


184  The  Belations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      miglit  be  felt,  while  His  slow  words  of  doom  fell 

FOURTH      one  by  one  upon  their  ears  !    What  wonder  if, 

EviL^        when  all  was  ended,  they  whispered  fearfully  to 

See  Matt.  vii.   each   other :    '  He   speaks    like  One   Who   hath 

'     '  authority !' 

On  a  later  occasion,   at   greater  length,   and 
with  ampler  pomp  and  circumstance  of  descrip- 
tion, our  Lord  foretold  the  final  segregation  of 
good  and  evil  members  within  His  visible  king- 
Matt.  XXV.  31-  dom,  in  language  which  left  no  shadow  of  doubt 
xx^!  64^;  John  that  He  claimed  for  Himself  the  awful  function 
'  "*  of  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead.     The  apostolic 

2Cor.  V.  10;  doctrinc,  that  it  is  'before  the  judgment-seat  of 
31 ;  Rom.  xiv.  Christ '  we  must  all  appear,  has  therefore  the 
most  abundant  and  unequivocal  foundation  in 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  Himself  But  this  pro- 
digious claim  is  as  really  advanced  in  these 
briefer  words  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
as  in  that  later  passage.  Here,  just  as  there. 
He  puts  Himself  in  the  front  as  the  Judge. 
Here,  just  as  there,  it  is  to  Him  the  self-deceived 
allege  their  grounds  of  hope ;  here,  as  there,  it  is 
His  voice  which  bids  the  unrighteous  'depart.' 
Yet  here  it  occurs  to  close  and  crown  a  discourse, 
which,  of  all  His  long  discourses  recorded,  is  the 
most  human  and  (so  to  say)  natural  in  its  tone  ; 
which,  in  fact,  has  hardly  until  now  betrayed  by 


9,  10  ;  1  Cor. 
iv.  5. 


Of  Judgment  on  Evil  ivithin  the  Kingdom.    185 

any  syllable  that  the  Speaker  claimed  to  be  more      part  ii. 
than  a  mortal  pro^Dhet,  a  second  and,  at  most,  a      fourth 

■r      •      •  Ml  1       1    r.    •    -.  •    1       RELATION  TO 

greater  Moses.  It  is  impossible  to  deal  fairly  with  evil. 
even  these  words  of  Jesus,  without  owning  that 
He  assumed  to  be,  in  a  sense  which  separated 
Him  from  all  other  men,  supernatural  and  divine. 
This  amazing  pretension  to  sit  in  the  seat  of 
God  and  adjudicate  on  the  ultimate  fate  of 
human  beings,  is  made  more,  not  less,  impressive, 
by  its  being  so  quietly  taken  for  granted,  rather 
than  obtruded  upon  our  attention.  The  truth 
is,  it  is  only  introduced  at  all  with  a  purely 
practical  or  hortatory  design.  It  is  not  of  Him- 
self the  Preacher  is  thinking  when  He  pictures 
Himself  as  detecting  His  false  subjects,  but  of 
them.  Their  perilous  mistake ;  their  self-delu- 
sion ;  their  exposure  when  too  late ;  their  final 
expulsion  from  the  kingdom :  these  are  the 
terrible  facts  which  fill  His  vision  and  kindle 
His  imagination.  To  warn  every  so  -  called 
Christian  how  he  must  in  the  end  have  his  pro- 
fession tested  by  his  conduct,  and  by  the  terrors 
of  that  ordeal  to  shake  deceived  souls  out  of 
their  dream  of  security,  and  shut  them  up  into 
that  narrow  path  of  holiness  which  alone  con- 
ducts to  life :  this  is  the  merciful  design  which 
inspires  His  forecast  of  judgment.     Perhaps  this 


186  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      design  may  explain  to  ns  the  dramatic  form  into 
FOURTH      which,  here  as  elsewhere,  our  Lord  has  cast  His 

RELATION  TO  ...  pit-  m  i  tt 

EviL.  anticipations  oi  the  nltimate  tribunal.  He  may 
have  chosen  the  dialogue  dress  in  order  to  make 
the  delusive  anticipations  of  these  professors  and 
their  fearful  undeceiving  stand  forth  with  a  vivid- 
ness and  lifelike  effect,  which  could  have  been 
attained  by  no  abstract  statement ;  while,  at  the 
same  time,  such  a  dramatic  dressing  of  the  facts 
could  deceive  no  one,  as  though  it  gave  any 
literal  account  of  a  mighty  moral  transaction,  the 
precise  details  of  which  must  be  for  the  present 
concealed  from  human  view.  Both  here  and  in 
Cf.  Matt.  XXV.  the  later  passage  there  is  as  little  as  possible 
said  to  satisfy  mere  curiosity,  or  to  betray  pre- 
maturely the  actual  form  or  method  of  final 
judgment.  But  the  moral  warning  intended  by 
the  Preacher,  and  for  the  sake  of  which  He  was 
pleased  to  raise  in  any  degree  the  curtain  of  the 
future,  is  thrown  up  (so  to  speak)  upon  the 
surface  in  such  relief  that  the  most  heedless  or 
unwilling  eye  cannot  fail  to  see  it. 

To  this  fresh  and  wider  warning,  left  by  the 
King  to  be  laid  to  heart  by  all  those  professed 
subjects  of  His  kingdom  whom  He  is  one  day  to 
judge,  our  attention  must  now  be  called. 


Of  Judgment  on  Evil  ivithin  the  Kingdom.     187 

It  is  right  that  we  should  scrutinize  the  pre-      part  n. 
tensions  of  teachers  who  come  to  us  in  Christ's      fourth 

,  RELATION  TO 

name,  professing  to  guide  us  in  Christ  s  path.  evil. 
To  judge  such  men  by  their  fruits  is  right,  simply 
because  it  is  necessary  for  our  own  safety.  That 
we  may  not  be  misled  by  '  false  proj^hets/  we 
must,  for  our  personal  satisfaction  at  least,  '  try 
the  spirits  whether  they  are  of  God.'  This  i  John  iv.  i. 
special  case,  however,  does  not  invalidate  the 
wider  law,  that  we 'judge  not.'  "While  we  are  Matt.  vii.  i. 
to  be  on  our  guard  against  unchristian  doctrine, 
the  detection  or  exposure  of  pretended  Christians 
is  not  in  our  hands.  There  is  an  obvious  differ- 
ence between  the  man  who  affects  to  lead  me  in 
the  way  of  life,  and  whose  claims  I  must  there- 
fore judge  before  I  can  follow  him,  and  the  man 
who  simply  styles  himself  a  private  disciple  of 
Christ.  With  the  true  or  false  profession  of  such 
feUow- Christians  as  only  claim  to  keep  me  com- 
pany in  the  narrow  way,  it  is  no  business  of  mine 
to  meddle.  Rather,  the  thing  for  me  to  remember 
in  this  connection  is,  that  they  and  I  are  alike  on 
our  way  to  the  face  of  One  "WTio  will  in  the  end 
try  all  of  us.  When  I  renounce  the  forbidden 
office  of  judge  of  my  neighbour's  Christianity,  it  is 
because  I  remember  that  he  is  no  judge  of  mine, 
but  that  both  of  us  have  One  That  judgeth  us. 


188  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  Kow,  in  thus  enlarging  the  area  of  judgment 

FOURTH  from  '  false  prophets  '  to  professing  Christians,  and 
EVIL.  in  removing  the  task  of  judgment  out  of  our 
hands  to  Christ's,  and  in  postponing  the  time  of 
judgment  till  the  Great  Day;  there  is,  be  it 
observed,  no  change  or  relaxation  in  the  rule  of 
judgment.  All  that  our  Lord  has  taught  us, 
under  the  former  paragraph,  about  the  difference 
betwixt  a  profession  which  can  be  put  on,  and 
See  p.  171  ff.  '  fruits  '  which  really  grow  out  of  the  heart ;  and 
how  the  former  may  readily  deceive  the  eye  if 
not  checked  by  the  sure  test  of  the  latter;  all 
this  we  can  transfer  to  the  wider  and  remoter 
judgment  of  the  Christ  upon  His  whole  kingdom. 
The  criterion  He  has  prescribed  to  us  where  we 
meanwhile  need  to  judge,  is  the  criterion  by 
which  in  the  end  He  will  judge  us  all ;  and  the 
unreliable  assumed  cloak  of  righteousness  in 
which  He  bids  us  have  no  confidence  when  we 
find  another  wearing  it,  is  a  cloak  which  will 
stand  us  in  poor  stead  when  we  ourselves  appear 
before  His  own  inspection.  !N"ot  sheep-skin 
covering,  but  the  honest  fruits  of  character,  will 
carry  us  into  His  kingdom ;  not  saying,  '  Lord, 
Lord,'  but  doing  His  Father's  will. 

There  is  no  less  need,  then,  to  guard  ourselves 
against    self-deception    than    against     deceivers. 


Of  Judgment  on  Evil  icitliin  the  Kingdom.     189 

Nay,  seK-deception  is  the  more  perilous  of  the      I'^iix  n. 
two ;   since  it  is  less  likely  to  be  detected  by      fourth 

RELATION  TO 

ourselves  or  to  be  exposed  by  any  other,  before  eyil. 
that  fatal  day,  when  its  exposure  is  certain 
indeed  to  come,  but  will  come  too  late.  Here 
and  there,  from  age  to  age,  a  few  lying  prophets 
may- creep  into  Christ's  fold  whom  it  will  need 
some  care  to  know  for  wolves ;  but  that  is  a  rare 
and  a  patent  danger,  compared  to  the  '  many '  ^cxxoi,  ver.  22. 
who  attach  themselves  to  the  crowd  of  His 
nominal  subjects,  and  are  as  forward  as  any 
others  to  avow  loyalty  to  His  name,  yet  under 
this  garb  of  discipleship  conceal  even  from  them- 
selves a  disobedient  and  worldly  heart.  Such  an 
exterior  show  of  attachment  to  Christ  may  even 
be  both  very  ingenuous  and  very  easily  mistaken 
for  reality.  To  say  'Lord,  Lord,'  is  no  more 
than  every  disciple  must  do :  it  is  the  simple 
acknowledgment  in  words  of  Jesus'  Messiahship 
— the  earliest  badge  of  membership  in  His 
Church  —  the  primitive  confession  of  faith. 
'  Every  one  '  says  that ;  but  of  those  who  say  it, 
there  are  '  many '  who  go  a  great  deal  further. 
Three  stages  are  distinguished  in  our  Lord's 
words ;  or  perhaps  three  classes  of  the  self-de- 
luded :  Prophets,  who  exercise  their  gifts  in  the 
public  congregation   to   the   edification  of  their 


190  The  Eelcctions  of  the  Kingdom. 

pAET  ir.      Christian  brethren ;   Exorcists,  who,  by  invoking 
FouKTH      the  saving  might  of  Christ,  have  delivered  pos- 
EviL.        sessed  men  from  evil  influences  ;  Wonder-workers, 
who  seem  to  themselves  and  others  to  wield  a 
quite   supernatural   power  through  their   excep- 
tional piety.     And  in  every  case,  the  disciple  is 
'In  Thy  name,' forward  to  avow  that  his  spiritual  performances 

three  times  in  ,  ^ ,  i  •    ,  p     ±a 

ver.  22.    Cf.     rest   upon   the   presence   and   assistance   oi    the 
iv.  10, 17/30,'  Lord  Jesus  Christ:   he  does  everything  in  that 
XVI.     ,  e  c.      prevailing  name.     These  examples  are  certainly 
not    overstated.       Such    exhibitions    of   pseudo- 
spiritual  power  have  often  been  familiar  to  the 
Church.       In  the  apostolic  age,  when  beKevers 
in  their  assemblies  edified  one  another  by  mutual 
exhortation,    the    gift    of   excited    and    moving 
speech  was  no  sure  mark  of  grace.     Not  all  who 
'  took  upon  them  to  call  over  them  which  had 
evil  spirits  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus'  were 
See  Acts  xix.    sucli  deliberate  impostors  or  so  readily  confuted 
as  the  seven  sons  of  Sceva.     St.  Paul  seems  to 
have  found  it  a  possible  thing  for  a  man  to  '  have 
1  Cor.  xiii.  1-3.  all  faith,  so  that  he  could  remove  mountains,' 
and  yet  not  have   charity.     Nor  is   it   only  in 
the  primitive  Church  that  such  phenomena  have 
appeared.     Other  periods,  characterized  by  a  like 
intense    spiritual    fervour   joined    to   scant   dis- 
crimination, have  supplied  similar  instances  to 


Of  Judgment  on  Evil  ivitliin  the  Kingdom.     191 

the  candid  student  of  spiritual  disease ;  instances      part^ii. 
which  enable  us  to  understand  our   Lord  in  the      fourth 

T     •  •  RELATION  TO 

most  literal  sense.  Wherever  religious  excite-  evil. 
ment  runs  high,  it  is  apt  to  carry  on  its  tide 
impressible  natures,  profoundly  moved  in  their 
emotional  sentiments  and  in  their  imagination, 
without  being  touched  to  the  quick  of  conscience, 
or  really  begotten  again  to  a  divine  passion  for 
righteousness.  Such  unhappy  persons  are  often 
borne  along  under  an  excitement  which  is  really 
due  to  mixed  influences,  but  which  they  mistake 
for  the  genuine  breath  of  God.  A  false  conceit 
of  being  eminent  organs  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
inflates  them  with  the  worst  kind  of  pride. 
Then  the  excitement,  which  at  its  outset  was 
real  enough,  however  superficial,  becomes  un- 
healthy and  insincere.  Under  the  stimulus  of 
vanity,  they  lose  moral  self-control.  In  a  super- 
stitious age  they  develope  into  devotees,  saintly 
ascetics,  fanatics,  and  miracle-mongers.  Mean- 
while conscience  is  drugged  and  silent.  Some- 
times, indeed,  such  a  morbid  religious  develop- 
ment may  be  found  to  rest  upon  a  base  of 
genuine  piety.  More  often,  the  narrow  way  of 
self-denial  and  lowly  obedience  and  patient 
wisdom — the  only  safe  way  for  human  feet — 
has  never  been  entered  throucjli  the  strait  crate 


192  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      of  penitence ;  yet  the  WTetched  soul,  wondered 
FOURTH      at  by  the   ignorant   and    flattered    for  a    saint, 
EVIL.        dreams  of  heaven  all  down  the  broad  road,  till 
the  terrible  awaking  comes  at  last ! 

No  doubt  these  are  extreme  cases ;  though 
something  analogous  may  be  seen,  thrown  off 
like  foam  by  every  great  religious  movement. 
But  by  such  extreme  cases,  does  not  our  Lord 
design  to  warn  us  against  trusting  to  any  ex- 
perience, supposed  to  be  spmtual,  or  taken  for 
conversion,  which  does  not  involve  as  its  very 
pith  and  kernel  a  profound  moral  change  from 
sin  to  virtue,  or  which  fails  to  justify  itself  in 
the  long  run  by  a  life  of  enduring  practical  good- 
Rom,  xiv.  17.  ness  ?  '  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and 
drink;'  not  Pharisaic  scrupulosity  in  external 
observances.  As  little  is  it  emotional  fervour, 
whether  vented  in  groans  or  praises ;  or  '  strik- 
ing '  experiences ;  or  zeal  for  the  Gospel ;  or 
a  power  to  talk  with  unction,  and  edify  and 
warm  the  listener.  No  ;  it  is  simply  and  entirely 
'  righteousness  : '  that  is  its  fruit,  its  proper  pro- 
See  ver.  21 ;  cf.  duct,  its  onlv  infallible  test.     To  '  do  the  will  of 

Matt.  xii.  50.  "^  r  ^  ■         ^   -      r^ 

the  Father,'  as  His  Son  has  m  this  Sermon  been 
expounding  it  to  us ;  to  do  it  out  of  a  pure 
heart,  as  in  His  sight,  and  with  perfect  love  as 
our  inspiring  motive :  that  is  what  proves  any  of 


Of  Judgment  on  Evil  icithin  the  Kingdom.     193 

us   to  be  a  disciple  of  Christ,  and  nothing  else      part  it. 

but  that  can  prove  it.      Forward  to  our  King's      foueth 

tribunal  the  current  of  our  life  is  carrying  each    '    ^yiL^ 

of  us ;  before  that  tribunal  we  shall  find  that  we 

have  left  behind  us  everything  else  in  which  we 

trusted,  and  must  vindicate  our  relationship  to 

the  King  Himself  by  the  practical  issues  of  our 

life  in  conduct,  and  by  that  alone.      Surely  it  is 

a  very  solemn  light  which   is   thus   shed  back 

from  the  seat  of  final  trial  over  all  those  laws 

and  duties  of  Christ's  ^N'ew  Testament  kino-dom 

o 

which  fill  the  major  portion  of  this  regal  mani- 
festo. The  Gospel  is  not  all  a  thing  of  promise  or 
of  benediction.  Its  message  opens  with  a  seven- 
fold blessing  ;  but  it  ends  with  judgment.     The  cf.  John  xii. 

47   48 

Gospel  holds  a  law  wrapt  up  within  its  bosom.     ' 
The  prescripts  of  this  King  are  harder  to  be  kept 
than  those  of  Moses.      These  severe  commands  : 
to  fulfil   every  jot  of  duty,  to   be  as   perfect  as  v.  18,  48 ;  vi. 
God,  to  act  in  His  sight  and  not  men's,  to  seek  '     '     •  *^* 
His  kingdom  before  gold,   to   do  to   all   as   w^e 
desire  them  to  do  to  us  :  these  commands,  I  say, 
are    meant   to    be    obeyed ;     and    they  are   not 
matters  to  be  done  at  a  rush,  under  some  pass- 
ing heat  of  sentiment,  or  in  a  glow  of  Sunday 
enthusiasm,  when  warmed  with  eloquence ;   but 
they  are  plain,  hard,  imperious,  constant  duties  ; 

N 


194  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  a  most  strict  way  of  life,  in  wliicli  we  must  be 
FOURTH  found  walking  by  sun  and  shade,  on  Sunday  and 
EVIL.  week-day,  both  when  our  feet  trip  lightly  along 
the  path  and  when  we  need  to  urge  reluctant 
steps  up  an  unwelcome  steep  with  our  teeth  set 
and  only  dogged  necessity  holding  us  to  our 
task.  These  are  duties,  too,  with  no  eclat  attend- 
ing them ;  they  minister  in  no  wise  to  spiritual 
elation ;  they  are  too  frigid  and  commonplace 
for  overstrained  pietism  or  ultra-devout  people  of 
any  sort.  They  fall  to  be  done  by  quiet  every- 
day and  unobtrusive  acts  of  justice  and  kindness 
and  hidden  self-control — by  trifling  sacrifices  and 
very  homely  toil — by  the  silent  relinquishment, 
now  of  pleasure  and  anon  of  gain,  for  the  ap- 
proval of  Him  Who  seeth  in  secret.     Nor  are  we 

Cf.  V.  19,  46 ;   incited  to  these  duties  only  by  promises  of  reward 

'  '  ""      such  as  were  held  out  at  an  earlier  stage.     It 

is  not    at  our  option  whether   we   shall  toil  to 

earn  by  obedience  the  Father's  approval.     These 

Cf.  1  Cor.  ix.    thinsjs  we  must  do,  or  be  reprobate.     We  must  do 

24-27  . 

them,  on  peril  of  forfeiting  salvation.  We  must 
do  them,  or  hear  in  the  end  from  the  lips  of 
unspeakable  grace  words  so  terrible  as  these : 
'  Depart  from  Me,  ye  that  work  iniquity.' 

Yer.  23.  By  a  single  word,  our  Lord  has  given  us  a  key, 


Of  Judgment  on  Evil  witliin  the  Kingdom.     195 

as   I   think,   to   this   evangelical  value   of  good      part  ii. 
works  as  a  test  of  christian  profession.      What      fourth 
self-deceived  members  of  His  Church  advance  in    '    evil. 
evidence  of  their  claim  to  eternal  life   consists 
entirely  in  certain  outward  relations  which  they 
have    sustained    to    Jesus    Christ.       They    have 
called  Him  '  Lord ;'  they  have  prophesied  in  His 
name  ;  they  have  exorcised  and  wrought  marvels. 
These  things   they  allege  as   signs  of  very  close   ■ 
and  intimate  relations   betwixt   Him  and  them. 
]^ow,  if  such  things  really  implied  any  vital  or 
inward  bond   between   the   man  and   Christ,  as 
the  deceived  professors   imagine,  their  claim  to 
eternal  life  would  be  made  out.     But  it  is  pre- 
cisely here  that  their  delusion  lies.      The  Judge 
will  undeceive  them.      He  will  frankly  '  confess  '  o^oxoyr^^co,  ver. 

.  23,  translated 

to  them — what  it  has  been  the   blame  and  the  'profess.' 

misery  of  such  people  not  to  have  cared  to  learn 

before — how  the  case  really  stands.     The  truth 

is,  there  has  never  been  betwixt  them  and  Him 

any  friendly  intimacy  or   communion  whatever. 

'  Then  will  I  confess  unto  them  :  "  I  never  knew 

you.'"      This    pregnant   use    of    the    knowledge 

which  one  person  has  of  another,  to  intimate  a 

friendly  intercourse  between  them   on  the  basis 

of  community  in  interest  and  sympathy,  has  its  Cf.  Nahum  i. 

roots  in  ancient  Hebrew  usage.     It  is  not  without  x.'i4. 


196  Tlie  Relatioyis  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      parallel  oven  in  Jesus'  language.      It  is  rather 
FOURTH      Irequent  with  St.  Paul.      It  reposes  on  the  prin- 

RELATION  TO        .     ^         ^  ^.     . 

EVIL.        ciple  that  no  living  person  can  be  truly  and  lully 
c  fir.  Gal.  iv.  9;  understood  without  love.      As  St.  Paul  puts  it,  it 

cf.  1  Cor.  viii.  ^ 

3,  c.  xiii.  12 ;    is  the  man  who  loves  God  who  (not  only  can  be 

and  see  espe- 
cially 2  Tim.     said  to  know  God,  but  even)  is  really  known  of 
ii.  ly.  ^  -^ 

Him.      When  the  Judge,   therefore,  to  put  the 

deceived  right,  shall  '  confess '  that,  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word.  He  has  had  no  personal 
knowledge  of  them  in  spite  of  their  free  use  of 
His  name.  He  gives  us  a  key  to  the  difference 
between  such  pseudo-spiritual  actions  as  they 
alles^e  and  such  ethical  '  fruit '  as  He  demands. 
Whatever  may  be  done  by  a  man  without  per- 
sonal union  to  Jesus  Christ  in  faith  and  love, 
or  without  such  communion  wuth  Him  as  implies 
a  full  friendly  accord  in  sympathy  and  motive : 
that  is  only  the  imitation  of  christian  life — a 
sheepskin  Christianity  borrowed  and  worn  upon 
the  outside  of  character,  without  im^^lying  real 
christian  life  within.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
impossible  to  have  come  into  personal  relations 
of  friendliness  with  Christ,  to  have  learned  to 
sjrmpathize  with  His  mission  and  to  live  by  faith 
upon  Him  as  one's  Saviour  and  Lord,  without 
receiving  a  new  moral  life  which  must  discover 
itself  in  character.     The  holy  passion  of  Jesus 


Of  Judgment  on  Evil  luithin  the  Kingdom.     197 

Christ   for   righteousness,   His   imitation   of    the      part  n. 

Father,  His  zeal  for  human  recovery,  His  self-      fourth 

sacrificing  charity.  His  loyalty  to  law :  these  are        evil! 

ground-features  of  His  character  as  the  Son  of 

God,  which  cannot  fail  to  he  reproduced  in  every 

soul  who  inheres  or  '  ahides '  in  His  communion 

after  any  genuine  or  spiritual  fashion.     To  be  in 

inner  fellowship  with  Him  is  to  be,  in  His  own 

words,  a  branch  growing  upon  the  gracious  and  Cf.  John  xv. 

1-8. 
fruitful  Vine,  and  every  such  branch  must  bear 

the  grapes  of  God. 

When  the  words  of  Jesus  are  searched,  then, 

and  His  thought  pushed  back  to  its  basis,  it  will 

be  found  that  the  difference  between  those  who 

only   believe   themselves    to   be    Christians   and 

those  who  are  Christians,  is  this,  that  the  one 

class  have,  and  the  other  have  not,  a  spiritual 

life,  rooted  in  personal  union  with   Christ,  and 

discovering  itself  in  conduct  resembling  His  own. 

On  another  occasion,  later  in  His  ministry,  our 

Lord  appears  to  have  repeated  substantially  the 

words  here  employed ;  but  on  that  occasion  He 

added    an   expression,    preserved    by   St.    Luke,  Luke  xiii. 

which  hints  to  us  how  profoundly  contrasted  in  oishausen, 

the  origin  of  their  moral  life  are  the  true  and  the  ^^ 

false  professors  of  His  name.     '  I  tell  you,'  is  the 

language   to   be   addressed 


198  The  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

TART  II.      knock  in  vain  at  the  door  of  His  celestial  home  : 

FOURTH      '  I  tell  you,  I  know  yon  not  lohcnce  ye  are!     The 

EVIL,        life  whose  connection  with  Christ  is  only  external, 

owns   in  reality  a  foreign  origin;   its  source  is 

elsewhere ;  its  moral   parentage  is  the   opposite 

Cf.  John  viii.  from  divine  :  Christ  therefore  knows  not  whence 
it  is.  But  he  who  is  one  with  Christ  by  a 
spiritual  birth  has  a  life  derived  from  God ;  and 
of  that  life  the  issues  are  righteous  deeds.     '  If 

1  johnii.  29,  ye  know  (is  the  comment  of  St.  John)  that  He  is 
righteous,  ye  know  that  every  one  that  doeth 
righteousness  is  born  of  Him.'  '  In  this/  there- 
fore, '  the  children  of  God  are  manifested,  and 
the  children  of  the  devil :  w^hosoever  doeth  not 
righteousness  is  not  of  God.' 

Cf.  Matt.  xii.        So  that,  after  all,  the  tree  must  be  first  made 

33. 

good,  before  its  fruit  can  be  good :  only  it  is  by 
the  goodness  of  its  fruit  that  the  goodness  of  the 
tree  is  known.  In  the  Master's  teaching  lies  the 
solution  of  that  old  evangelical  antinomy  be- 
twixt faith  and  works.  But  His  scholars  James 
and  Paul  do  not  differ ;  they  agree.  Faith  pre- 
cedes works,  and  produces  works,  and  by  works 
Jas.  ii.  22.  is  '  made  perfect ;'  so  St.  James  teaches.  Faith 
Gal.  V.  6 ;        works  by  love,  and  love  fulfils  the  law  :  this  is 

Kom.  xiii.  10. 

the  teachinsj  of  St.  Paul.      Faith  that  works  no 
fruit  is  dead;    works  that  are  not  wrought   by 


Of  Judgment  on  Evil  ivitliin  the  Kingdom.     199 

faith  are  dead  also.     Life  lies  in  the  union  of  soul      part  n. 

and  body :  of  inward  devotion  and  outward  cha-      fourth 

racter.   It  is  an  idle  quarrel  which  has  been  waged        evil! 

betwixt  the  partisans  of  either  side  of  the  shield. 

When  St.  Paul  was  old,  he  taught  his  son  Timothy  2  Tim.  ii.  19. 

that  the  seal  of  God  which  attests  the  foundation 

of  our  christian  hope  has  two  sides ;  and  if  its 

obverse   bears  for   a  motto  these  w^ords  of  the 

Judge  :  '  The  Lord  knoweth  them  that  are  His  ;' 

there  is  also  on  its  reverse  this  legend  which  he 

who  runs  may  read  :  '  Let  every  one  that  nameth 

the  name  of  Christ  depart  from  iniquity.' 


CONCLUSION. 


201 


Therefore,  whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  Mine,  and 
doeth  them,  1  will  liken  him  unto  a  wise  man,  which  huilt  his 
house  upon  a  rock ;  and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods 
came,  and  the  vnnds  blew,  and  heat  upon  that  house ;  and  it 
fell  not :  for  it  was  founded  upon  a  rock.  And  every  one 
that  heareth  these  sayings  of  Mine,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall 
he  likened  unto  a  foolish  man,  which  huilt  his  house  upon  the 
sand ;  and  the  rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the 
winds  Mew,  and  heat  upon  that  house;  and  it  fell:  and  great 
was  the  fall  of  it. — Matt.  vii.  24-27. 

Cf.  Luke  vi.  46-49.  And  why  call  ye  Me,  '  Lord,  Lord,"* 
and  do  not  the  things  which  I  say?  Whosoever  cometh  to  Me, 
and  heareth  My  sayings,  and  doeth  them,  I  icill  show  you  to 
whom  he  is  like :  he  is  like  a  man  which  huilt  an  house,  and 
digged  deep,  and  laid  the  foundation  on  a  rock:  and  when  the 
food  arose,  the  stream  heat  vehemently  upon  that  house,  and 
could  not  shake  it;  for  it  was  founded  upon  a  rock  [or,  well- 
huiW].  But  he  that  heareth,  and  doeth  not,  is  like  a  man 
that,  without  a  foundation,  huilt  an  house  upon  the  earth ; 
against  which  the  stream  did  heat  vehemently,  and  immediately 
it  fell;  and  the  ruin  of  that  house  was  great. 


202 


CONCLUSION. 

A   S  every  good  peroration  should,  this  perora-      pakt  ir. 
^-*~^     tion   of    our   Lord's    great    Sermon    both  conclusion. 
springs  immediately  out  of  the  foregoing  train  of 
thought,   and    also   looks   back   over    the   whole 
discoiu'se  to  sum  up  its  leading  lesson. 

The  startling  fact,  which  He  Who  is  to  be 
Judge  as  well  as  Lawgiver  has  just  been  pealing 
in  His  disciples'  ears,  is  this :  that  men  can  go 
far  and  long  in  a  simulated  discipleship,  without 
knowing  it,  till  before  His  seat  of  judgment  they 
find  it  out  too  late.  This  is  what  has  made  the 
closing  paragraph  of  the  Sermon  rattle  like  a 
crash  of  near  thunder.  And  because  such  judg- 
ment on  disciples  is  to  go  at  last  by  the  evidence 
of  deeds,  '  therefore '  the  man  who  hears  only, 
without  doing,  the  words  of  Jesus,  is  a  '  fool.' 
To  expose  the  folly  of  such  disobedient  hearers 
is  plainly  the  purpose  of  the  peroration.  At  the 
same  time,  the  backward  glance  over  '  these 
sayings  of  Mine,'  seems  to  gather  up  the  long 
series  of  instructions  over  which  we  have  been 

203 


204  Tlic  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PAKT II.  travelling,  into  the  unity  of  a  code.  This 
CONCLUSION,  mountain  Sermon  is  one.  Its  '  sayings '  have  a 
common  principle.  They  constitute  one  legis- 
lative act  for  the  guidance  of  citizens  in  the 
new  kingdom  of  God.  They  are  a  law  to  be 
kept  in  its  integrity,  if  kept  aright  at  all.  They 
will  be  kept  by  every  true  citizen  who  has  the 
spirit  of  the  kingdom  and  the  love  of  the  King 
within  him.  By  others  they  will  not  be  kept. 
They  will  only  be  listened  to.  But  how  in- 
tensely practical  a  thing  is  Christianity  in  the 
eyes  of  Christ !  The  whole  drift  and  movement 
of  this  long  discourse  has  carried  us  forward 
with  it  to  one  most  w^eighty  practical  conclusion, 
— w^hich  here,  like  a  stone  swung  at  the  sling's 
end,  is  discharged  full  upon  us  wdth  crushing 
momentum, — that,  after  all,  he  only  is  a  Christian 
who  does  ivhat  Christ  bids  him. 

This  closing  lesson  of  the  entire  discourse  is 
rendered  impressive  and  memorable,  not  only  by 
the  vivid  double  simile  under  which  it  is  con- 
veyed, but  still  more  even  by  the  full  round  roll 
of  the  style ;  the  intentional  repetition  of  the 
same  phrases  in  both  halves  of  the  parable  ;  the 
continuous  solemn  sweep  of  the  long  redoubled 
sentence  which  seems  to  dwell  upon  the  ear,  and 
afterwards  to  haunt  the  memory.     The  materials 


Conchtsio7i.  205 

of    the   picture  were   familiar   to   His   audience,      paet  n. 
Syrian    houses    of   the    poorer   class   were   then  conclusion. 
probably  (as  they  still  are)  very  slight — built  of  cf.  Ezek.  xiii. 
mud  or  a  few  unhewn   stones,  roughly   daubed  ^ 
with  ^untempered  mortar/  and  roofed  in  by  no 
stouter  materials  than  brushwood  with  a  layer  of  See  Ps.  cxxix. 
grass-grown   earth   over    it.       Two    such   houses    ' 
have    been    erected    in    one   of    the    precipitous 
wadys    which   everywhere    seam    the    limestone 
ranges   of   Palestine,   and    swiftly   drain    off  its 
superfluous  rainfall.       So   long  as  summer  lasts 
and  the  bed  of  the  watercourse  is  dry,  both  of 
them  stand  equally  well  and  appear  to  be  equally 
secure.     But   a  day  of  testing  comes.     One  of 
those  terrific  storms  of  rain  and  hail  which  the 
treacherous  winds  of  the  Levant  bring  up   sud- 
denly from  the  sea,  swells  the  brook   in  a  few 
hours  into  a  torrent ;  and  when  the  flood  sweeps 
down  its  narrow  channel  like  a  tide,  turbid  and  Cf.  ^\^f^y.L^^«, 

in  Luke. 

white  with  foam  from  one  rocky  bank  to  the 
other,  while  the  fierce  rain-storm  drives  up  the 
ravine  before  the  western  gale,  and  lashes  on  roof 
and  sides,  then  is  put  to  proof  the  stability  of 
both  dwellings ;  then  everything  depends  on  the 
character  of  their  foundation.  The  one  has  been 
built,  with  careless  want  of  foresight,  upon  no- 
thing better  than  the  layer  of  loose  sand  or  gravel 


206  77^6  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      broiiglit  down  by  former  floods.      Of  course,  the 

CONCLUSION,  waters  which  eddy  now  about  its  base  fret  away 

from  beneath  it  the  very  soil  on  which  it  stands, 

till  the  force  of  the  storm,  beating  down  upon 

its  undermined  and  unsupported  walls,  crushes  it 

Cf.  isa.  xxviii.  ^-^^0  ruin.     It  was  a  '  refuge  of  lies,'  for  it  pre- 

whkh  ^e^text  tended  to  a  foundation  which  it  had  not ;  and 

mraiiei  ^^'^^^    '  ^^^^  Overflowing  scourge  '  rolls  it  indignantly  to 

the  sea.       The   other  builder,  on   the    contrary, 

when  he  began  to  build,  took  the  precaution  to 

clear  away  that  drift  sand,  deep  though   it  was, 

'  He  digged      and,  digging  down  to  the  rock  beneath,  laid  his 

deep;'  Luke    foundation  there.      Now  he  finds  the  reward  of 

'  '  his  prudent  pains  and  thoroughness.      The  flood 

may  wash  away,  no  doubt,  whatever  is  moveable 

from    about    the    base    of    his    house,    even    as 

from   his   neighbour's ;   but   when   its  walls    are 

laid  bare  to  the  very  rock,  the  secret  strength 

of   his    '  hiding  -  place '    is    only    discovered    to 

Cf.  tiie  turn     view :    and   though    roof    and   sides   may   suffer 

I^^^SeiniCor.  ^^^^^   ^^^   there   in  their   weaker   portions   from 

111.  14, 15.        |-|^Q    searching   of  wind   or  rain,    yet   his   house 

at  least,  as   a   place   to   shelter   him,  is   secure 

from  demolition :  it  falls  not,  for  it  is  founded 

on  the  rock. 

So  Jesus  leaves  His  parable  to  interpret  itself 
The  contrast  betwixt  a  superficial  profession  of 


Conclusion.  207 

disciplesliip,  in  wliich  self-deceived  Christians  part  ir. 
confide  as  sufficient,  and  that  thoroughcfoinQ^,  conclusion. 
profound  moral  earnestness  which  is  concerned 
to  make  sure  work  of  it,  and  to  be.  all  that  it 
seems  to  be :  this  lies  on  the  surface  of  the 
parable,  and  perhaps  this  is  all  that  in  the  first 
instance  was  apparent  to  the  hearers  of  it.  It  is 
foolish  to  forget  that  a  day  of  trial  is  at  hand, 
when  conduct  only  will  stand  the  test  of  God ; 
foolish  to  hear  Christ's  word,  and  call  Christ 
'Lord,'  and  fancy  that  a  reputation  for  disciple- 
ship,  based  on  such  a  flimsy  foundation  as  this, 
will  always  shelter  you  from  the  storm.  The 
disciple  who  would  be  really  safe,  must  go  deeper 
to  work  with  his  religion  than  that.  He  must 
rest  his  christian  profession  on  the  solid  ground 
of  heart  earnestness  after  righteousness  ;  he  must 
thoroughly  be  what  he  appears ;  he  must  do  what 
he  hears.  So  far,  I  say,  the  meaning  lies  on  the 
surface.  But  when  we  recall  what  use  had  been 
made  of  this  same  metaphor  before,  what  use  was 
to  be  made  of  it  later,  it  seems  not  unreasonable 
to  find  in  our  Lord's  words  something  more  than 
this.  That  moral  thoroughness  in  the  christian 
life  which  aims  at  consistent  obedience  to  Christ, 
succeeds  in  doing  His  word  only  by  coming  into 
close   and   trustful   contact  with  Himself.       He 


siqjra. 


208  TJie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.  who  would  be  practically  a  Christian,  must  have 
CONCLUSION,  nothing  betwixt  his  naked  soul  and  the  eternal 
Eock,  Christ;  for  it  is  only  as  based  on  Him, 
fastened  to  Him,  that  any  disciple  learns  to  love 
His  word,  or  gets  strength  to  do  it.  In  the  very 
isa.  xxviii.  ut  passage  of  prophecy  to  which  Jesus  seems  to  be 
pX  u-Vs.  here  alluding,  it  is  the  man  whose  confidence  is 
built  upon  the  tried  and  precious  Stone,  laid  of 
God  in  Zion,  whose  refuge  is  not  swept  away  by 
the  hail  when  God  makes  righteousness  His 
1  Cor.  iii.  ut  plummet  of  judgment.  In  that  apostolic  passage, 
too,  where  St.  Paul  seems  most  closely  to  imitate 
these  sentences  of  his  Master, — though  the  trial 
of  the  final  day  is  figured  not  as  a  test  by  water, 
but  as  a  test  by  fire,  and  though  all  we  build  is 
not  supposed  to  stand  that  test, — it  is  still  Jesus 
Christ  Who  is  the  one  foundation  laid.  The 
truth  is,  that  these  two  thoughts  are  in  scrip- 
tural teaching,  as  in  actual  fact,  inseparable  :  no 
christian  life  will  stand  the  last  judgment  of 
God  which  is  not  in  practical  conformity  with 
the  laws  of  Christ ;  and  no  christian  life  can  be 
in  conformity  with  Christ's  laws  which  is  not 
rooted  in  personal  spiritual  union  with  Christ 
Himself  Sometimes  it  is  the  one,  sometimes  the 
other,  of  these  two  which  is  uppermost  with  the 
sacred  writers;   but  always   where  the  other  is 


Conclusion.  209 

uppermost,  the   other  lies   underneath.      In   the      part  ir. 
parable  before  us  they  seem  to  coalesce.  conclusion. 

Days  are  often  coming  in  the  lives  of  all  of 
us  which  try  the  worth  of  our  Christianity. 
Days  of  unlooked-for  losses  or  days  of  sudden 
elevation  or  enrichment,  may  either  of  them 
become  for  a  man  a  time  of  exposure,  when  the 
bad  foundation  gives  way  before  the  temptation 
to  abandon  Christ,  and  one's  life-long  profession 
of  religion  crumbles  visibly  before  men's  eyes. 
Better  so,  than  await  in  the  fancied  security  of 
the  fool  the  oncoming  of  that  final  '  day '  of  which 
all  other  judgment  days  are  only  feeble  types 
and  partial  foretellings !  Swiftly,  on  the  wings 
of  every  dawn,  comes  that  last  of  dawns.  A 
day  of  more  searching  tempest,  of  more  destruc- 
tive fire;  it  shall  leave  no  false  claim  uncon- 
sumed,  no  baseless  hope  unruined.  '  A  prudent  Prov.  xxii.  3 
man  foreseeth  the  evil,  and  hideth  himself:  but  xxvii?i%.^^ 
the  simple  pass  on  and  are  punished.'  Let  us 
look  each  one  to  his  foundation.  There  are  so 
many  who  seem  to  be  taking  their  stand  for 
eternity  on  Jesus  Christ :  there  are  possibly  so 
few  whose  lives  are  built  into  the  Itock.  So 
many  of  us  hear,  so  few  are  manifestly  doing, 
His  words.  Now  surely  is  a  time,  if  ever 
there  was  one,  for  trumpeting  in  the  ears  of  the 


210  Tlie  Relations  of  the  Kingdom. 

PART  II.      Church  what   St.   James   trumpeted  to  his  own 

CONCLUSION,  age,  in  words  which  sound  like  a  reverberation 

Jas.  i.  22.        of  his  Master's  :  'Be  te   doers   of  the  word, 

AND  NOT  HEARERS  ONLY,  DECEIVING  YOUR  OWN 
SELVES.' 


THE  END. 


MDRRAT  AND   GIBB,   EDINEUKGH, 
PRINTERS   TO    HER  MAJESTY'S   STATIOKERY   OFFICE. 


*.' 


.'.  •^»- 


,:f; 

1 

'■*,    '' 

'  I "'' 

■    'i 

.  V  , 

-•   •<), 

"^''..  i 

^.  )  'I' 

,   'il 

'    s''.' 

;  ^  ,i 

•v"|. 

•:' 

'. '  i 

;  • 

,';'i:l' 

'i;i- 

1 

■}■■•'■■•., 

f  J^M:^|;#§'t>:-/- 


1 


■^?> 


